Prof.  E.  R.  A.  SeUgmtm  ffe  (faWvi 

THE  WAR/^U' 

AND  THE  (/ 

JEWS  IN  RUSSIA 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE  NATIONAL  WORKMEN'S  COMMITTEE 
ON  JEWISH  RIGHTS 


NEW  YORK 


V 


THE  NATIONAL  WORKMEN'S  COMMITTEE 
ON  JEWISH  RIGHTS 

175  EAST  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK 


Dr.  FRANK  F.  ROSENBLATT, 
Treasurer 

Sholem  Ash 

A.  Block 

J.  M.  Budish 

S.  Dropkin 

M.  Gillis 

Dr.  B.  Hoffman 

M.  Kaz 

H.  Lang 

S.  Shore 

P.  Juditz 


DR.  MAX  GOLDFARB,  . 

Secretary 

S.  Liliput 
M.  Lulow 
M.  Olgin 
J.  Panken 

A.  Roberts 

J.  B.  Salutsky 
Assemblyman 
A.  Shipliakoff 

B.  Vladeck 

G.  H.  Yeshurin 


COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLICITY 

*  DR.  HENRY  MOSKOWITZ, .  J.  M.  BUDISH;* 

Chairman  Secretary 

Dr.  M.  Goldfarb  Dr.  B.  Hoffman 

M.  Kaz  Dr.  F.  Rosenblatt 

M.  Olgin  Dr.  N.  I.  Stone 


CONTEXTS 


Page 

Preface    5-6 

Inrtoduction    7-28 

PART  ONE 

Legal  Position  of  Jews  in  Russia   29-41 

Extracts  from  Original  Russian  Laws    40-41 

PART  TWO 

Documentary  Record  of  Jewish  Oppression  Dur- 
ing Present  War   42-118 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Jews  and  the  War — Report  by  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Russian  Party  of  People's  Free- 
dom (Constitutional  Democrats)   

Resolution  of  Kadet's  Conference   

Addenda:  Order  of  General  Jakowlow — Hostages 
demanded  by  Governor  Griasnoff — Expulsion 
Order  from  Kovno   

CHAPTER  II 

Public  Opinion  in  Russia — Anti-Jewish  Policies  of 
Government  Denounced  in  the  Duma  by  Miliu- 


off,  Chkheidze,  Kernsky  and  Freedman   74-81 

CHAPTER  III 

Interpellation  of  the  Government  in  the  Duma.  .  82-85 

CHAPTER  IV 

Russian  Censorship  Suppressing  Information  Fav- 
orable to  Jews  Denounced  in  the  Duma   86-88 

CHAPTER  V 

Public  Opinion  of  Conservative  Russia — Speech 

by  Baron  Rosen  in  the  Council  of  Empire.  .  .  .  89-90 


42-67 
67-71 

71-73 


3 


CONTENTS  (Continued) 


CHAPTER  VI 

Municipalities    and    Zemstwos    Demand    Equal  Paga 
Rights  for  Russian  Jews    91-92 

CHAPTER  VII 

Voice  of  Russian  Trade  and  Professional  Organ- 

,  i.,  .  .  93-95 
izat.ions   

CHAPTER  VIII 
Voice  of  Leading  Russian  Writers  and  Publicists  96-101 

CHAPTER  IX 

Plight  of  Jewish  Exiles    102-104 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Alleged  Abolition  of  the  "Pale"    105-112 

.  .CHAPTER  XI 

The  Alleged  Cancellation  of  Proceedings  Under 

Article  1171  of  Volume  XV  of  the  Penal  Code.  113-116 

CHAPTER  XII 

New  Restrictions  of  Jewish  Rights  Imposed  Dur- 
ing the  War    117-118 

APPENDIX 

I —  Public  Opinion  in  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain    119-123 

II —  A  London  Appeal    124-127 


A 


Preface 


This  book  is  published  by  the  Jewish  National  Work* 
mens  Committee  on  Jewish  Rights  in  the  belligerent 
countries  and  in  Roumania.  This  Committee  was  organ- 
ized at  the  Jewish  National  Workmen's  Convention  held 
in  New  York  City  from  September  4  to  7,  1914.  The  con- 
vention represented,  among  others,  the  following  or- 
ganizations : 

1.  The  United  Hebrew  Trades. 

2.  The  Jewish  Workmen's  Circle. 

3.  The  Jewish  Federation  of  the  Socialist  Party  of 
the  United  States. 

4.  The  Jewish  Socialist  Territorialist  Labor  Party. 

5.  The  Labor  Zionists. 

6.  The  Central  Alliance  of  the  Jewish  ' '  Bund. ' ' 

7.  The  Jewish  National  Workmen's  Alliance,  and 
numerous  local  Jewish  Labor  Organizations  through- 
out the  country.  These  organizations  comprise  a  total 
membership  of  over  350,000,  represented  by  197  dele- 
gates. 

The  convetion  unanimously  adopted  resolutions  de- 
manding full  and  equal  civil,  political  and  national 
rights  for  the  Jews  in  all  countries  where  they  are  at 
present  suffering  from  disabilities  and  restrictions. 

The  convention  elected  a  representative  committee. 
It  was  instructed,  first,  to  inform  public  opinion  of  the 
United  States  and  Europe,  concerning  the  suffering  and 
humiliating  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  war  countries; 
second,  to  appeal  to  the  people  and  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  intervene  on  behalf  of  the  Jews  of 
Europe  at  the  Peace  Conference  after  the  war;  third, 
to  address  similar  appeals  to  the  International  Con- 
gress of  Socialists,  to  Peace  Conferences  and  to  other 
organized  bodies  concerned  with  international  relations 
and,  finally,  to  unite  with  organizations  of  any  other 


5 


classes  or  groups  of  the  Jewish  population  of  America 

for  the  achievement  of  these  aims. 

The  convention  unanimously  favored  the  convening 
of  a  congress  of  American  Jews  consisting  of  delegates 
elected  on  a  democratic  basis  by  local  Jewish  organiza- 
tions in  order  that  the  efforts  of  the  entire  American 
Jewish  population  be  directed  and  united  on  behalf  of 
our  unfortunate  brethern  in  the  war  stricken  coun- 
tries. 

This  book  consists  of  two  parts.    The  first  gives  a 
concise  summary  of  all  the  Jewish  disabilities  in  Rus- 
sia which  were  in  force  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 
The  second  is  a  record  based  upon  authoriative  docu- 
ments of  Jewish  persecutions  during  the  war,  despite 
the  fact  that  at  least  400,000  Jews  are  fighting  for  their 
country.    The  citations  are  taken  exclusively  from  lit- 
eral translations  of  Russian  official  documents  and  from 
reports  printed  in  the  Russian  press  which  were  passed 
upon  and  unchallenged  by  the  rigid  Russian  military 
censorship.    No  use  was  made  of  any  reports  which 
came  from  a  source  unfriendly  to  Russia.   No  consider- 
ation was  given  to  the  accounts  of  refugees  who  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  American  shores  or  to  letters  which 
evaded  the  censorship.    Only  such  reports  and  docu- 
ments were  used  which  admit  of  no  reasonable  doubt  as 
to  their  originality,  genuineness,  or  accuracy.    For  the 
busy  reader  a  brief  summary  of  the  documentary  evi- 
dence is  given  in  the  introduction. 
-  This  book  is  submitted  to  the  American  people  with 
full  confidence  that  the  facts  recited  therein  will  lead 
the  government  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to  urge  for  the  Jews  when  the  international  occasion 
arises,  those  civil,  political  and  national  rights  which 
constitute  the  basis  of  a  civilized  society. 

J.  M.  BUDISH,  Secretary, 
Committee  on  Publicity. 


G 


INTRODUCTION  * 


 At  the  outbreak  of  war,  the  Jews  fully  entered  into 

the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  which  seized  upon  all  the 
nationalities  of  the  Russian  Empire.  They,  were  con- 
vinced that  without  victory  "it  would  be  impossible  lor 
Russia  to  continue  on  the  road  of  progress,  to  exist  as  a 
modern  state." 

Ready  to  forget  and  forgive  recent  affronts  and  out- 
rages, to  deny  even  to  themselves  their  just  claims 
against  the  Russian  Government  they  threw  themselves 
into  the  struggle  for  the  triumph  of  "those  great  ideals 
of  humanity,"  for  the  defense  of  which,  they  were 
convinced,  Russia  and  her  allies  had  taken  up  arms. 

Notwithstanding  the  greater  military  burden  imposed 
on  the  Jews  in  comparison  with  other  Russian  national- 
ities, f  ' '  mobilization  among  the  Jewish  population  was 
completed  practically  without  arrears.  The  newspapers 
recorded  striking  numbers  of  Jewish  volunteers.  Among 
these  were  students  of  foreign  universities  who,  by  the 
established  Government  maximum  for  Jews,  were  de- 
prived of  the  right  to  study  in  Russia." 

From  the  far  and  "promised  land,"  America,  Jews 
returned  to  share  in  the  struggles  of  their  father- 
land, **  which  has  always  treated  them  as  step-children. 

"A  considerable  number  of  the  youth  who  were  study- 
ing abroad  entered  the  Allied  armies.  The  press  re- 
produced petitions  from  Jews,  who  were  enrolled  in 
the  subsidiary  services,  requesting  to  be  transferred  to 
the  fighting  units." 

Over  300,000  Jewish  soldiers  served  under  Russian 
colors  during  the  first  months  of  the  war  and  their 
numbers  must  since  have  been  increased  by  at  least  half. 

•All  citations  in  this  Introduction  are  taken  from  the  original  Russian 
documents,  which  the  reader  will  find  in  Part  n  of  this  book. 
4  See  Part  I.  page  33. 
•*Se*  Part  II.  page  77. 


On  the  other  hand  the  burdens  of  war  that  fell  on  the 
peaceful  Jewish  population  were  greater  than  their  pro- 
portional number  in  the  total  population.  Penned  up 
by  law  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  western  provinces 
of  Russia  (Poland  and  "The  Pale"),  which  became  the 
theatre  of  war,  the  Jews  were  the  first  to  feel  the  eco- 
nomic and  financial  distress  caused  by  the  international 
crisis. 

These  cities  with  a  predominant  Jewish  population 
were  the  nearest  to  the  very  theatre  of  military  opera- 
tions. It  fell  upon  them  to  give  the  first  aid  to  the 
wounded,  and  to  furnish  relief  for  the  inhabitants 
of  the  small  towns,  stripped  to  the  last  thread  by  the 
reconnoitring  vanguards  of  both  the  invading  and  re- 
treating armies.  The  Jews  rallied  to  the  tremendous 
problem.  They  equipped  hospitals  for  wounded  soldiers 
and  organized  relief  for  war  sufferers  without  distinc- 
tion of  race  or  religious  denomination. 

Under  such  circumstances  it  was  only  too  natural  to 
expect  that  the  government  would  take  serious  meas- 
ures to  alleviate  the  burdensome  legal  position  of  the 
urban  Jewish  population  in  the  war-stricken  provinces. 
In  this  great  hour  when  the  fate  of  the  fatherland  was 
to  be  decided,  the  Government,  it  was  thought,  would 
at  least  suspend  its  barbarous  persecuting  policy  toward 
the  Jews.  The  most  reactionary  elements  in  Russian 
society  expected  such  action  by  the  Government,  if  only 
for  the  duration  of  the  war.  They  were  themselves  ready 
to  suspend  their  antisemitic  agitation. 

All  such  expectations  proved  to  be  vain.  Russia 
showed  herself  once  more  a  country  of  unlimited  pos- 
sibilities; a  country  in  which  people  sharing  all  the 
burdens  and  duties  of  a  national  war,  could,  none  the 
less,  be  subjected  to  persecutions  and  torture. 

The  Russian  Government  in  its  historic  efforts  to 
maintain  "the  outlived  past"  dared  not  deprive  it- 
self of  its  chance  "to  exploit  antisemitism  as  a  tried 
weapon  of  sinister  demagogism."  After  the  outbreak 
of  war,  municipal  self  government  was  introduced 


8 


(March  30,  1915)  in  Poland.  But  though  more  than 
300,000  Jews  are  fighting  in  the  ranks  to  retain  Poland 
for  the  Russian  crown,  they  were  subjected  by  this  new 
law  to  the  most  extraordinary  discriminations.  The 
new  municipal  resolutions  restrict  the  Jewish  popula- 
tion in  the  city  councils  as  follows : 

"In  cities  where  Jews  comprise  over  one-half  of 
the  total  population  of  the  city,  they  elect  one-fifth  of 
the  total  number  of  city  aldermen;  in  other  cities  the 
number  of  Jewish  aldermen  shall  in  no  case  exceed 
one-tenth  of  the  total  number  of  aldermen." 

In  addition,  Jews  are  not  eligible  for  Chairmen  of 
Municipal  Councils,  or  as  Presidents,  City  Elders,  or 
members  of  the  Executive  Committes,  or  as  Secretaries 
or  Acting  Secretaries.  Even  more  striking  are  the  rules 
introduced  (April,  1915),  by  the  Acting  Minister  of 
Public  Education  with  regard  to  the  admittance  to  Sec- 
ondary School  of  the  children  of  Jews  who  have  been 
called  into  the  active  army  and  have  received  a  distinc- 
tion or  of  those  who  have  been  killed  or  wounded. 

According  to  these  rules  such  children  shall  be  given 
preference  over  other  Jews,  but  only  for  admittance 
to  "Jewish  Vacancies"  and  only  "in  the  limits  of  the 
per  cent,  norm."  Thus  the  children  of  Jews  who  have 
died  for  their  fatherland  are  denied  the  privilege  of  a  sec- 
ondary school  education  if  the  small  government  max- 
imum *  for  Jews  be  filled. 

"  Not  satisfied  with  the  continuance  of  its  usual  an- 
tisemitic  policies  the  Government  entered  upon  a  policy 
of  sinister  meaning.  To  justify  before  the  nation  the  ill- 
success  of  military  operations,  "measures  were  under- 
taken by  the  government  in  good  time  to  incite  the 
army  and  the  people  against  the  Jews  by  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  circumstances  and  the  rules  of  war-time. ' ' 

Unfortunately  the  very  peculiarities  of  the  place  and 
nature  of  the  military  activties  created  a  favorable 
opportunity. 

Poland  was  the  chief  theatre  of  the  war,  especially 

*  See  below,  pages  32  and  118. 


9 


so.at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  The  Jews  of  Poland 
are  easily  distinguished  from  the  surrounding  popula- 
tion by  their  traditional  garb  and  the  Yiddish  lan- 
guage. Owing  to  existing  educational  restrictions, 
there  are  many  small  Polish  towns  where  no  Jew,  speak- 
ing the  Russian  language  fluently  can  be  found.  In  ad- 
dition, "it  happened  that  in  many  localities  the  Ger- 
mans appeared  on  the  ground  before  the  Russian  forces. 
The  Russian  troops,  pushing  out  the  Germans,  arrived 
in  these  towns  only  after  the  inhabitants  had  been 
stripped  of  practically  everything  by  German  military 
requisitions  and  plunderings.  The  demands  addressed 
to  the  Jews,  the  only  shopkeepers  in  these  localities 
could  not  be  satisfied."  Under  such  circumstances  it 
Was  almost  inevitable  that  suspicion  should  grow  up  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Russian  army  against  the  Jews.  Sus- 
picion gave  rise  to  violence  on  the  part  of  the  Russian 
troops  against  the  terror-stricken  Jews.  Another  fact 
that  was  greatly  responsible  for  the  hostile  attitude  of 
the  Russian  army  toward  the  Jews  consisted  in  the  un- 
friendly relations  between  the  Polish  and  Jewish  popu- 
lation which  have  developed  of  recent  years. 

"The  economic  boycott  of  Jewish  trade  that  has  been 
preached  for  the  last  several  years  has  awakened, 
among  the  different  groups  of  the  Polish  population, 
and  particularly  among  the  small  business  men,  un- 
wholesome race  hatred  and  religious  hostility.  In  a 
struggle  of  such  a  nature  no  weapon  is  considered  too 
mean. ' ' 

The  circumstances  of  the  war  were  only  too  readily 
seized  upon  by  the  boycott  leaders  and  hostile  elements 
of  the  local  population.  The  Russian  troops  were  ready 
to  give  credence  to  the  most  absurd  calumines.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  impression  made  upon  the  Russian 
soldiers  by  allegations  coming  from  kindred  Slavs  to 
the  effect  that  the  Jews  had  voluntarily  delivered  every- 
thing of  use  to  the  Germans  and  were  hiding  everything 
fro  mthe  Russians.  There  were  fables  of  gold  being  sent 

•  See  below,  page  32. 


10 


to  Germans  in  coffins  or  in  the  intrails.  of  geeses,  of  --a 
Jew  on  a  white  horse  passing  before  the  Russian  ariny 
and  giving  signals;  of  telephone  wires  led  for  miles  by 
means  of  thick  wires  and  cords  ;  of  windmills  brought 
into  movement  by  human  hands. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Government  had  knowl- 
edge of  the  falsity  of  all  these  accusations,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  no  courts  of  record  brought  out  a  single 
conviction  against  a  Russian  Jew  for  espionage,  it  not 
only  tolerated,  but  at  first  actively  encouraged  and  then 
directly  took  upon  itself  the  initiative  in  the  fabrication 
and  spreading  of  these  slanders.  The  provocative  pol- 
icy of  the  Government 's  secret  agents  against  the  loyal 
peaceful  Jewish  population  was  substantiated  by  a  ver- 
dict of  the  Military  Corps'  Court  as  early  as  April, 
1915.  * 

Much  more  dangerous  than  these  false  accusations 
against  individuals,  was  the  general  treatment  accord- 
ed by  the  military  authorities  to  the  Jew  in  the  war 
zone.  Scarcely  had  the  enemy  reached  the  frontiers 
of  Russia  when  a  series  of  sporadic  "wholesale  expul- 
sions of  the  Jews  and  the  Jews  only"  was  inauguarated 
by  individual  commanders  in  isolated  districts.  In  this 
manner  Jews  were  expelled  from  many  towns  of  the 
provinces  of  Lomzha,  Radom,  Lublin,  and  Warsaw. 
Such  expulsions  were  followed  by  proclamations  and 
orders  alleging  that  these  measures  were  undertaken 
in  order  "to  prevent  espionage."  Expulsions,  carried 
out  almost  without  notice  and  with  "  inmeasurable 
brutality,"  without  sparing  even  the  families  of  reser- 
vists, directed  against  the  old,  the  sick,  and  paralized 
"suggested  to  the  people  and  to  the  army  the  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  Jews  were  treated  as  enemies  by 
the  Government,  and  that  the  Jewish  population  was 
outside  the  law." 

In  this  manner  the  ground  was  gradually  prepared 
for  a  far-reaching  and  systematic  campaign  by  the 
Government  authorities,  in  the  form  of  calumines  and 

*  See  below,  page  44. 


li 


slanders  against  the  Jews  as  an  excuse  for  the  reverses 
of  the  war: 

"In  order  to  have  suspicion  averted  from  these  who 
were  the  real  cause  of  German  omniscience  as  to  our 
military  plans,  the  Government  deemed  it  necessary  to 
circulate  in  civil  society  and  throughout  the  ranks  of 
the  army,  calumnies  against  that  part  of  the  popula- 
tion which  so  easily  lent  itself  to  suspicion." 

The  Russian  Military  Industrial  Committee,  "observ- 
ing the  workings  of  the  government  departments  from 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war,"  openly  declared  that 
it  "came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  unable  to 
cope  with  the  situation."  To  direct  public  attention, 
in  another  direction  "a  fictitious  culprit"  was  to  be  in- 
vented and  measures  were  taken  to  concentrate  upon 
him  the  attention  of  the  (Russian)  people  so  that  the 
real  culprits  might  escape,"  "for  this  purpose  there 
exists  the  old  firm — the  Jew." 

Fisrt  of  all  "the  censorship  set  out  to  suppress  the 
truth  about  the  Jews,  and  to  encourage  all  sorts  of 
falsehoods  and  libels"  against  them.  "From  the  first 
day  of  war  the  censors  were  eliminating  from  the  press 
columns  everything  that  bore  evidence  of  Jewish  gal- 
lantry, of  awards  of  insignia  of  distinction  to  Jews,  of 
the  promotion  of  Jews  to  the  rank  of  ensign,  and  so  on. 
The  editoriol  offices  of  progressive  newspapers  like  Reck, 
By  en,  Birzheviya  Viedomosty,  and  Petrogradsky  Kur- 
yer,  possessed  long  columns  of  such  news  cancelled  by 
the  censors." 

Even  the  pictures  of  Jewish  Chevaliers  of  St.  George 
with  no  jnention  that  they  were  pictures  of  Jews  were 
suppressed  by  some  of  the  censors,  for  fear  the  read- 
er might  guess  their  origin.  Because  the  "New  Vosk- 
hod"  set  out  to  collect  data  on  "the  war  and  the  Jews," 
this  journal  was  suspended  by  the  censorship. 


12 


"On  the  other  hand,  the  censor  permits  the  publica- 
1  ion  of  such  absurdities  as  Jewish  doctors  maiming  Rus- 
sian soldiers  at  the  Red  Cross  hospitals  and  infecting 
them  with  syphilis." 

Finally  to  deprive  the  Jews  of  any  means  of  defense 
or  of  influencing  public  opinion  "the  entire  Yiddish 
press  had  been  suspended,  by  a  single  stroke  of  the  pen 
and  no  Yiddish  newspaper  was  permitted  to  appear.  In 
Warsaw,  Vilna,  and  Odessa,  eleven  publications  were 
closed,  of  which  the  daily  Haint,  had  a  circulation  of 
130,000,  Moment  over  100,000,  Unser  Leben,  20,000, 
six  other  publications  varying  in  circulation  between 
5,000  and  8,000."  "This  was  done  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  Jewish  newspapers  from  the  very  beginning 
of  the  war  never  ceased  appealing  to  the  Jewish  masses 
to  do  their  duty  to  Russia." 

Once  a  prejudiced  atmosphere  had  been  created  by 
the  Jew-baiting  press  the  turn  came  for  that  series  of 
infamous  Orders  of  the  Day  by  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  and  General  Staff  which  will  forever  remain  as  a 
stain  on  the  honor  of  the  Russian  Army.  The  highest 
commanders  of  the  Russian  Army  made  cunning  use 
of  a  prominent  factor  which  helped  them  greatly  in  the 
devilish  task  of  successfuly  circulating  slanders  against 
the  Jews. 

"The  tragedy  of  the  situation  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  in  appearance,  language,  and  habits,  the  Galcian 
Jew  closely  resembled  and  in  several  respects  are  entirely 
the  same  as  the  Jews  of  Poland. ' ' 

The  natural  hostility  of  the  Galician  (Austrian)  Jews 
towards  the  Russian  enemy  of  their  country  was  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  treatment  meted  out  to  them  by  the 
Russian  administration. 

"To  the  anxious  inquiries  of  the  Galician  Jews  as  to 
their  ultimate  fate  the  cynical  reply  was,  that  by  behav- 


13 


ing  loyally  they  might  expect  to  be  put  on  an  equal 
footing  with  the  Jews  in  Russia. 

"And  this  hostility  of  Jews  who  were  Austrian  sub- 
jects was  summarily  charged  to  the  account  of  the  Jews 
of  Russia,  an  appeal  to  the  ignorance  of  the  Russian 
masses  and  soldiers  who,  of  course,  are  unable  to  analyze 
questions  of  ethnography  and  politics.  As  early  as  J an- 
uary,  1915,  a  proclamation  by  the  Commander-in-Chief, 
the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  was  posted  in  all  streets  and 
squares  in  Lemberg  (Galicia)  declaring  that  the  prog- 
ress of  the  present  war  has  revealed  an  open  hostility  to 
us  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  population  in  Poland,  Gali- 
cia, and  Bukowina. " 

Subsequently  this  proclamation  was  "telegraphed  to 
all  the  commanders-in-chief  of  the  military  districts 
of  the  zone  of  war  and  adjoining  localities,"  ordering 
them  "to  expel  the  Jews  immediately  after  the  retreat 
of  the  enemy  and  to  take  hostages  from  among  the  most 
wealthy  or  those  occupying  a  communal  or  other  public 
office,"  with  the  clause  that  "for  every  Jewish  spy 
caught,  two  hostages  shall  be  hanged." 

Thus  the  first  step  was  made  by  the  highest  military 
authorities  on  the  slippery  road  of  wholesale  accusa- 
tions and  of  the  enforcement  of  the  principle  of  com- 
munal responsibility;  "a  principle  that  is  abhorrent 
to  the  most  elementary  sense  of  justice,"  consisting  in 
the  punishment  of  "absolutely  innocent  people"  for 
offenses  supposedly  committed  by  others.  Obninsky, 
member  of  the  first  Duma,  said,  "During  the  eight 
months  of  my  stay  in  Galicia  I  had  numerous  occasions 
to  satisfy  myself  as  to  the  groundlessness  of  the  legend 
about  the  prevalence  of  espionage  among  the  Jews. 
The  number  of  convictions  at  the  Russian  field-courts- 
martial  was  insignificant ;  it  hardly  reached  ten  out  of 
a  hundred  tried. ' '  * 

This  statement  was,  however,  suppressed  by  the  cen- 


beloTw,epagctC8rnt  W39  rCPCated  by  PauI  Miliukoff  »  the  Duma;  .« 


14 


sorship  which  would  not  allow  the  Russian  people  to  be 
informed  as  to  the  real  facts. 

The  example  of  the  Commander-inChief  was  followed 
by  his  subordinates.  General  Bobir  issued  an  order  de- 
claring the  Russian  Jews  to  be  allied  with  the  enemies  of 
Russia  on  the  ground  of  the  articles  in  the  German  news- 
papers; Gen.  Ruzsky  announced.  "There  are  to  be  re- 
moved immediately  all  Jews  and  suspicious  persons 
from  localities  that  are  situated  near  the  line  of  the 
front  and  in  the  region  where  the  troops  are  con- 
centrated." 

After  that  comes  a  series  of  orders  revealing  discrim- 
ination against  the  Jews  in  cases  where  no  excuse  what- 
ever can  be  furnished.  On  the  12th  of  April,  1915, 
Gen.  Evert  issued  special  regulations  which  impose 
severer  penalties  upon  the  Jews  than  upon  non-Jews  for 
the  commitment  of  the  same  crimes. 

And  on  July  7,  1915,  pursuant  to  an  order  of  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  an  Order  of  the  Day  was  issued 
by  Gen.  Jakowlow  to  govern  the  evacuation  of  the  War- 
saw region.  According  to  this  order  the  non-Jewish 
civil  population  were  to  be  directed  to  the  nearest 
points  available,  the  refugees  Jews  towards  the  dis- 
trict east  of  the  Volga,  within  at  least  something  like  a 
1,000  miles  away. 

Finally  an  attempt  is  made  to  stigmatize  Jewish 
soldiers  who  were  risking  their  lives  in  the  same  trenches 
with  the  others.  This  is  done  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  "up  to  that  time  no  complaints  whatever  were 
ever  received  from  any  part  of  the  army  whatsoever, 
against  the  Jewish  soldiers"  and  that  "nothing  but 
good  reports  were  ever  heard  from  commanders  of 
regiments,  brigades  and  divisions." 

At  a  time  (May,  1915),  when  the  Russian  nation  was 
overcome  by  grave  alarm,  when  on  the  one  hand  the 
enemy  was  gaining  ground  in  the  Baltic  provinces, 
and  on  the  other  hand  the  attack  in  Galicia  by  the 
Germans  was  started,  in  those  terrible  days  the  Gen- 


SPECIAL  REGULATIONS  BY  GENERAL  EVERT 


GEfiATUbHQE  I10CTAH0B1BIE. 

e^uM«in  n.  7  ct.  415  nonomem  o  no/ieBbw* 
ynpaBflBDiH  unficKi,  6*  bobhhob  Bpewa,  o6hMflmo,  hto; 
Bb  BHiiy  Hp636biHdMH0  yBe/i»H»iBuiHxCfl  3a  noc/itAHee  BpeMfl 
Bb  paiOH*  apwiin  c/iynaeBb  MouieHHHMecTBa  m  o6waHOBT> 
co  ctopohw  eBpeeBi>,  HanpaBJieHteixt  bo  spe/n>  BOMCKaimv 
a,  na  ocwBaHw  ct.  419  no/ioweHia  o  no/ieBOMb  ynpaB/i8H?<i 
BOMCKt  no  pe/iaKuiH,  BblCOHAHUJE  yTBepwjieHHOft  Bb  29 
AeKb  jae»aopa  1914  roiia,  yca/iHBaio  BpeiwenHO  ciporocTb 
HaHa3aHiit,'  no/ioweHHbixb  3aH0H0Mb  3a  ,  MOUiCHHtwecTBO 
h  npHHa3biBaw*  Ha  dyjaymee  Bpe*ia  3a  Bcawaro  poaa  no- 
XHui8HiH,  nojBtjeiicxBottfc  o6iiaHa,  symnxb  seme*,  aeHerb 
bM  wno  jpmwmwaro  HjayweciBa,  npe^yciioTptHHbia  173 
qyb*  ■j*  yciaea  o  HaKasamaxb,  Ha/iaraeiwbixb  mhpobmsm 
^HMVi  &s*tftxi>  cjiyiaaxb,  Korjia  odBWHaewbiMH  abua* 

^»  espBH,  SilOTepO'tBUJHMH — SaCTH  BOMCKb  H/JN  OTfltflb- 

bie  BOHHCKie  hhkm,  no^BepraTb  BHHOBHbixb  Bb  ysHHeHiN 
otiManoBb  m  MouiBHHHsocTBb  KaKasaHiaMb,  ycxaHOBJiBH* 
HbiMb  ct:  1666  Y/ioih.  o  HaKa3..  coBeptueHHO  ucsaBHCHMO 
0Tb  cyMMbi,  noxtimeHHON  48pe3b  tshobob  npecTynHoe 
AtflHie. 

KoM^H^yioiraM  apaiie&,  34cp<~* 
reEepaai»-oTt  MH*aHTepiM  9BBT 

dO-V9vtiapn  191 5  roaa. 


For  full  translation  of  these  special  regulations,  see  below,' p.  58. 


eral  Staff  decided  to  collect  statistics  about  the  conduct 
of  the  Jewish  soldiers.  But  the  desired  character  of  the 
information  looked  for  was  determined  in  advance  by  the 
Order  of  the  Day,  of  May  10.  Information  was  de- 
manded with  regard  to : 

"3.  The  circumstances  of  the  surrender  of  Jewish 
privates  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  4.  "Cases  of  treason 
against  duty  and  oath." 

This  inquiry  was  intended  to  furnish  material  for 
a  government  reply  to  the  severe  criticism  of  its  poli- 
cies by  liberal  Russia  and  to  the  expected  interpella- 
tions in  the  Duma  (which  was  to  renew  its  session  on 
August  1,  1915).  It  brought,  evidently,  no  desirable 
results.  The  Government  never  made  any  reply  in  the 
press  or  in  the  Duma  to  all  the  indictments  by  the  Op- 
position and  the  Duma  committee  found  against  the 
Government.  But  such  inquiry  independent  of  the 
results,  could  not  fail,  of  course,  to  arouse  among  the 
men  in  the  ranks  suspicion  and  distrust  against  their 
Jewish  comrades  in  arms. 

As  a  climax  of  this  infamous  campaign  came  the 
Kuzhi  libel  and  the  expulsions  from  Kurland  and  Kov- 
no.  The  Kuzhi  slander  which  appeared  first  in  the  of- 
ficial military  organ  (May  10,1915)  was  subsequently 
published  broadcast  on  -the  Government  Bulletin 
Boards,  and  by  employing  illegal  *  compulsory  meas- 
ures the  censorships  made  the  press  reproduce  it  all  over 
the  country.  The  official  communication  stated  that 
"prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  Russian  detachment,  the 
Jews  of  Kuzhi  a  village  in  Kurland,  had  concealed 
Germans  in  many  of  the  cellars  and  at  a  signal  given 
by  a  shot  they  set  Kuzhi  on  fire  from  all  sides.  This 
incident,  evinced  shocking  treachery  against  our  forces 
by  a  certain  part  of  the  local  population  particularly 
the  Jews." 

A  thorough  investigation  by  members  of  the  Duma 
brought  out  the  fact,  however,  that  "when,  according  to 
the  report  in  the  Nash  Viestnik  the  enemy  detachments 

*  See  below,  page  25. 


17 


were  attacking  Kuzhi  there  were  no  Jews  in  it.  All  the 
Jewish  houses  were  destroyed  by  fire." 

Of  course,  no  Jews  from  Kuzhi  were  brought  to  trial 
for  the  alleged  treasonable  acts. 

The  expulsions,  formerly  local  in  their  character  were 
now,  in  the  middle  of  May,  1915,  extended  into  whole- 
sale evictions  of  Jews  from  entire  provinces.  All  at 
once  "each  and  every  Jew"  is  ordered  expelled  by  the 
Commander-in-Chief  from  the  Governments  of  Eovno, 
Kurland  and  part  of  Grodno.  The  date  limit  for  their 
departure  was  set  for  the  18th  of  May.  After  that  date, 
the  orders  warn  "Jews  found  sojourning  to  the  west 
of  the  said  line  will  be  punished  in  accordance  with 
martial  law,"  and  "the  police  officials  failing  to  take 
effective  measures  for  the  enforcement  of  the  said  order 
will  be  removed  from  office  and  indicted."  Thus  with- 
in a  maximum  of  from  three  to  seven  days  from  the 
date  of  the  issue  of  the  orders  by  the  corresponding 
Commanders-in-Chief,  all  Jews  inhabiting  this  region 
were  to  be  exiled. 

"The  time  really  given  for  removal  varied  from  24 
hours,  as  in  Kukyin,  and  in  Tsabelnja;  on  occasions 
even  less  than  24  hours  were  allowed."  Mostly  "they 
were  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  taking  along  their 
inventories,  many  being  obliged  to  travel  on  foot.  The 
orders  of  expulsions  affected  all  Jews  with  no  exceptions 
whatsoever.  There  were  deported  wounded  soldiers  who 
has  just  returned  from  the  battle  front,  some  wearing 
the  cross  of  St.  George."  There  were  exiled  "the  wives, 
children  and  parents  of  those  fighting  at  the  front,  aged 
men,  some  80  years  old,  and  new  born  babes ;  entire  asy- 
lums of  helpless  cripples  and  insane  and  sheltering 
houses  for  infants  and  orphans  were  banished  en  masse. ' ' 
Together  with  those  expelled  on  previous  occasions,  "all 
told  about  a  half  million  people  have  been  doomed  to  a 
state  of  beggary  and  vagabondage." 

As  for  the  character  of  the  expelled  "criminals"  a 
few  statistics  taken  at  random  may  be  illustrating.  ' '  Out 


18 


of  2,357  of  the  expelled  found  in  Poltava,  there  were 
J, 619  women,  children,  old  men,  and  incapaciatcd,  in- 
cluding 32  nursing  infants,  144  children  and  one  to 
three  years  of  age,  16  persons  afflicted  with  grave  dis- 
eases ;  17  dumb,  blind  cripples  and  insane  and  6  wounded 
soldiers."  Another  investigation  of  "139  exile  families 
numbering  539  persons,  who  have  come  to  the  Province 
of  Chernigoff  from  the  Province  of  Kovno  proved  that 
85  members  of  those  families  had  gone  to  war.  On  the 
average,  every  ten  families  of  the  expelled  furnished  7 
men  to  the  army." 

These  expelled  "criminals"  were  allowed  "no  free- 
dom of  movement."  They  were  forwarded  under 
a  bill  of  lading  as  freight  exclusively  into  the  Pale 
of  Settlement  and  only  into  those  parts  which  are  far 
from  the  theatre  of  war  on  the  left  shore  of  the  Dniep- 
er," in  the  Governments  of  Ekaterinoslav  and  Cher- 
nigov, a  region  entirely  foreign  to  them.  The  way  was 
an  endless  one,  the  journey  from  the  province  of  Kovno 
to  the  province  of  Poltava  took  eight  weeks.  Then 
there  were  cases  in  which  the  governors  "refused  out- 
right to  take  in  the  Jews  at  all."  In  Vilna  a  whole 
trainload  of  Jews  was  stalled  for  four  days  in  the  No- 
vo-Wilejsk  station.  Those  were  Jews  who  had  been 
sent  from  the  government  of  Kovno  to  the  Government 
of  Poltava,  but  the  governor  there  would  not  receive 
them  and  sent  them  back  to  Kovno  whence  they  were 
again  reshipped  to  Poltava  "Children  suffering  from 
scarlet  fever  and  measles  and  carried  in  heated  freight 
cars,/ eplushkis,  persons  of  the  age  of  over  a  100  years 
dying  while  en-route,  women  in  childbirth  right  near  the 
dead" — all  that,  however,  cruel,  might  be  considered  as 
the  natural  inevitable  fate  of  the  expelled.  But  there  was 
something  more,  something  that  makes  one  shudder  with 
indignation,  that  compels  from  the  sympathetic  mind 
the  conclusion  that  "the  expulsion  of  the  Jews,  how- 
ever, during  the  month  of  May,  was  a  heartless,  unrea- 
sonable absurdity,"  for  "they  were  transported  like 
criminals;  they  were  not  permitted  out  of  the  railroad 


19 


stations  to  obtain  drinking  water,  deliveries  of  food 
were  prohibited,  physicians  were  not  admitted.  The 
seriously  ill  were  not  allowed  to  be  removed  on  the 
way."  Moreover,  "when  an  accident  occured  on  the 
way  and  a  six  year  old  child  was  killed,  the  parents 
were  not  allowed  to  bury  the  child." 

"By  the  end  of  May,  1915,  the  expulsions  gradually 
depopulated  all  the  chief  Jewish  centres  in  11  Russian 
and  Polish  provinces  and  the  larger  part  of  Galicia. 
The  number  of  Jewish  fugitives  for  whom  the  Jewish 
Relief  Committees  of  Petrograd,  Moscow,  Kieft',  and 
Odessa  were  then  making  provision  was  526,000." 

"But  the  tragedy  of  this  compulsory  migration  is  not 
at  an  end.  At  the  present  moment,  (middle  of  June), 
there  are  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people 
adrift  in  cattle  cars,  far  from  their  native  provinces, 
deprived  of  shelter,  living  on  charity.  For  weeks  they 
were  kept  in  cars  on  the  side  tracks.  The  local  popula- 
tion hiss  at  them  with  cries  'spy'  and  'treacherous 
Jews.'  The  people  can  find  no  other  explanation  for 
this  scene." 

"It  is  estimated  that  of  the  refugees  now  (Novem- 
ber, 1915)  wandering  helplessly  in  the  provinces  east 
and  south-east  of  Warsaw  nearly  a  million  and  a  half 
are  Jews." 

The  enforced  migration  of  the  Jews  brought  about 
some  noteworthy  results  which  came  to  be  regarded  by 
sympathetic,  but  misinformed  outsiders  as  important 
concessions  to  the  Russian  Jews.  Unfortunately  the 
facts  in  the  case  do  not  support  this  optimistic  con- 
tention. True  to  their  policy  of  expelling  the  Jews 
not  only  from  the  immediate  war  zone  but  from  far 
behind  the  lines  the  Russian  military  authorities  were 
presently  compelled  to  violate  the  narrow  limits  of  the 
Jewish  Ghetto  in  Russia.  At  the  beginning  of  autumn, 
1915,  the  major  part  of  the  Jewish  Pale  of  Settlement 
(Poland  and  Lithania)  was  occupied  by  the  Germans 


21 


and  the  remainder  was  to  a  large  extent  the  zone  of  mili- 
tary operations.  As  early  as  July  7,  1915,  General 
Jakowlow  pursuant  to  an  order  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  issued  an  Order  of  the  Day  to  govern  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  Warsaw  regions ;  this  order  instructed  the 
local  authorities  that  "  Refugee  Jews  are  to  be  directed 
towards  the  district  east  of  the  Volga,"  i.  e„  to  pro- 
vinces outside  the  Pale  of  Settlement.  Thus  in  the 
words  of  the  semi-official  historian :  * 

"The  expulsion  as  a  matter  of  fact  abolished  the  no- 
torious Pale  of  Jewish  Settlement  and  brought  about 
'temporary'  permission  for  Jews  to  settle  (with  cer- 
tain exceptions)  in  all  Russian  cities." 

The  Council  of  Ministers  on  August  4,  1915,  had 
therefore  to  consider  an  accomplished  fact,  namely, 
that  "lately,  in  connection  with  the  war,  the  Jews  have 
been  leaving,  en  masse,  the  theatre  of  war  and  have 
accumulated  in  some  of  the  interior  governments  of  the 
Empire." 

The  influx,  however,  of  multitudes  of  starving,  pau- 
perized, and  homeless  exiles  was  bound  to  weigh  down 
heavily  on  these  provinces.  Their  inhabitants  distress- 
ed by  the  war  must  now  provide  for  the  new-comers. 
The  economic  life  which  is  not  adopted  to  such  radi- 
cal changes  suffers  complete  disorganization.  Disease 
follows  on  the  heels  of  the  fugitives.  The  Council 
of  Ministers,  therefore  quite  naturally  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  "the  further  concentration  of  these  fugi- 
tives, whose  numbers  are  growing  constantly  and  con- 
siderably, in  the  limited  area  (outside  of  the  Pale) 
now  allotted  to  them  is  causing  dissatisfaction  among 
the  local  autochtone  population  and  may  lead  to  alarm- 
ing consequence  in  the  shape  of  wholesale  (mass)  dis- 
orders," and  that  "the  most  suitable  way  out  of  the 
situation  that  has  arisen  might  be  the  granting  to  Jews 
thej-ight  of  residence  in  towns  outside  the  (Jewish) 

"  See  below,  page  108. 


22 


Pale  of  Settlement."  Thus,  "in  view  of  the  extraor- 
dinary, circumstances  of  the  time  of  war,"  the  Jews 
were  temporarily  "pending  the  general  revision  in  a 
manner  laid  down  by  the  law  of  the  laws  and  regula- 
tions in  force  concerning  Jews,"  granted  (August  15, 
1915)  the  right  to  live  outside  the  Pale  of  the  general 
Settlement,  with  the  exception  "of  the  capitals  and  the 
localities  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministries  of 
the  Imperial  Court  and  of  War. ' ' 

As  a  measure  of  temporary  relief  the  extension  of 
the  Jewish  residence  rights  was  granted  for  the  benefit 
of  those  "provinces  of  the  Empire  where  the  Jews  have 
lately  been  accumlated"  by  compulsory  military  ex- 
pulsions rather  than  for  the  benefit  of  the  Jews  them- 
selves. As  to  the  latter  a  special  conference  of  the  Min- 
istry of  Justice  held  two  months  later  on  the  admit- 
tance of  the  Jews  to  the  bar,  divides  the  Empire  into 
Court  districts  of  the  Pale,  into  those  outside  the  Pale, 
and  those  embracing  provinces  both  inside  and  outside 
0f  it  *— this  all  as  in  the  good  old  times,  as  if  the  Pale 
regulations  have  in  no  way  been  changed. 

The  unlimited  discretion  left  by  the  Russian  law  to 
the  local  official  with  regard  to  all  domiciliary  rights  of 
the  Jews,  practically  made  the  circular  temporarily 
extending  the  boundaries  of  the  Pale,  non-effective  in 
the  greater  and  most  important  provinces  outside  of 
the  Pale.  Siberia,  Caucasus,  Transcapian  region,  and 
many  specific  cities  and  localities  (such  as  Kieff)  were 
barred  to  the  Jews  by  the  local  authorities,  not  to  men- 
tion the  Cossack  Territories  and  the  two  capitals  (Petro- 
grad  and  Moscow)  excluded  from  the  concession  by  the 
original  circular. 

Similar  was  the  fate  of  another  "concession"  grant- 
ed the  Jews  as  a  logical  inference  of  the  abolition  of 
the  Pale.  The  Russian  laws  recognize  a  special  class  of 
privileged  Jews  who  enjoy  temporary  and  conditional 
residence  rights  outside  of  the  Pale  during  the  time 

*  See  Part  II.  page  109. 

23 


they  are  engaged  in  a  legally  authorized  and  specified 
trade  (artisans,  prostitutes,  etc.).  In  reference  to  these 
privileged  Jews,  the  Russian  Penal  Code  contains  an 
Article  1,171,  prohibiting  them  from  engaging  in  any 
other  trade  except  the  one  expressedly  sanctioned. 
The  prescribed  penalty  is  expulsion  into  the  Pale  and 
the  confiscation  of  property.      How  far  the  Russian 
Courts  were  willing  to  go  in  the  application  of  this 
article  is  shown  by  the  typical  case  of  the  blacksmith, 
Pliner.   This  respectable  artisian  was  punished  (March, 
1915)  to  the  full  extent  of  the  law  for  the  selling  the 
"non-kosher"  hind  quarter  of  a  calf  to  his  Gentile 
neighbors,  and  this  at  a  time  when  "two  of  his  sons  and 
two  of  his  sons-in-law  were  at  the  front  and  fighting  in 
advance  positions."    (See  page  113.) 

The  climax  of  anti-Jewish  policy  was  attained  when 
the  military   authorities   proceeded  to  take  hostages 
from  Russia's  own  Jewish  subjects.      "Note,  such 
hostages  were  taken  from  among  the  most  wealthy  and 
from  those  who  are  held  in  great  respect  even  by  the 
authorities;  at  times  hostages  were  recruited  from  per- 
sons who  had  during  war  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  energetic  and  self-denying  activities  for  the  Rus- 
sian army."   To  complete  the  demoralizing  effect  "the 
taking  of  hostages  was  accompanied  in  some  places  by 
an  odd  kind  of  bargaining.    At  first  the  richest  people 
were  designated  as  hostages;  these  were  then  discharged 
for  a  certain  ransom,  and  in  their  stead  a  second  levy 
was  designated;  this  in  turn  was  discharged    for  a 
ransom  and  a  third  draft  designated."  "Even  now  there 
are  (August,  1915)  about  400  such  hostages  in  the  prTs 
ons  of  Poltava,  Ekaterinoslav,  and  Mohileff,  wh0  are 
m  constant  danger  of  being  hanged  any  moment  "  In 
vain  was  the  indignant  exclamation  of  the  leader  nf  « 
Peasant  Party  in  the  Duma:  "I  ask  vou  Z    l  <  i 

24 


ities  went  as  far  as  to  demand  that  the  Jews  "agree 
voluntarily  to  furnish  hostages  from  among  the  rabbis 
and  other  respectable  people."  Only  upon  this  condi- 
tion would  be  authorities  allow  Jewish  fugatives  to 
return  to  their  former  habitations.  With  dismay  and 
disdain  the  Russian  Jews  rejected  the  bargain! 

"This  monstrous  condition  exacted  by  the  author- 
ities from  their  own  subjects,  the  Jewish  population 
does  not  accept.  It  chooses  exile  and  death  from  starva- 
tion rather  than  accede  to  a  demand  which  is  a  stigma 
on  its  civic  and  national  honor." 


So  runs  the  tale  of  oppression  as  told  in  official  Rus- 
sian documents  and  in  authoritative  press  records  which 
have  passed  the  rigid  military  censorship. 

In  justice  to  the  Russian  people  it  should  be  pointed 
out  that  it  has  had  no  part  in  this  chronicle  of  persecu- 
tion and  oppression.  By  every  channel  of  communi- 
cation Russian  public  opinion  expressed  its  abhorrence 
of  the  militant  anti-semitism  of  the  government.  In 
the  Duma  and  Council  of  Empire,  the  representatives 
of  Labor  (Chkheidze,  Skobeleff),  of  the  peasants  (Dzu- 
binsky,  Sukhanoff),  of  Liberal  Russia  (Prof.  Miliukoff), 
of  Conservative  Russia  (Baron  Rosen),  all  bittrely  de- 
nounced the  "mediveal  treatment  of  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation of  Russia."  The  Duma  as  a  whole,  went  on 
record  as  firmly  opposed  to  the  anti-Jewish  policies  of 
the  Government.  An  interpellation  by  the  United  Oppo- 
sition was  sustained  by  the  following  resolution  of  the 
Duma  Committee. 

"1.  Orders  of  military  authoritiese  cannot  form  the 
subject  of  an  interpellation  in  Duma,  but  the  carrying 
in  effect  of  such  orders  under  the  conditions  described 
is  absolutely  illegal. 

"2.  Compulsion  applied  to  newspapers,  in  the  matter 
of  publishing  the  Official  commuique  containing  the 
story  of  Kuzhi  was  illegal. 


25 


'd.  The  authorities  in  accepting  hostages  were  act- 
ing unlawfully." 

Municipal  and  Zemstwo  Councils,  the  Moscow  Con- 
ference of  Mayors,  the  Congress  of  Delegates  from 
Cities  of  Western  Siberia,  the  Conference  of  Twenty 
Zemstwos  at  Yaroslavl,  etc.,  have  once  and  again  de- 
manded that  equal  rights  be  granted  to  Jews.  The 
same  desire  that  Kussia  which  "unfortunately  has  until 
now  been  only  a  step-mother  to  the  Jews  may  now  be- 
come a  mother  to  them,"  animates  all  the  prominent 
Russian  trade  and  professional  organizations.  They 
have  considered  it  absolutely  essential  for  the  economic 
development  of  the  country  to  grant  the  Jews  full  domi- 
ciliary rights  and  free  admission  to  the  educational  in- 
stitutions of  the  country. 

The  conscience  of  Russia  has  also  spoken  through  its 
great  writers. 

Leonid  Andreyev  declares  the  Jewish  restrictions  to 
be  "something  like  an  immovable  deforming  excres- 
cence" on  the  organism  of  the  Russian  state.  And 
Maxim  Gorky  is  even  more  bitter  in  his  denunciations 
of  the  barbarian  "zoological"  instincts  of  anti-semitism. 
In  its  oppression  and  mockery  of  the  Jews,  the  Rus- 
sian Government  stands  out  before  the  civilized  world 
as  sharply  condemned  by  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  its  own  nation. 

The  question  naturally  arises :  How  can  the  Russian 
Government  pursue  such  an  inhuman  policy,  in  opposi- 
tion to  almost  the  entire  nation?  Such  a  situation 
would  be  quite  inconceivable  in  a  democracy  where  the 
maxim— "the  will  of  the  people  is  the  supreme  law" 
has  entered  into  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  nation.  It 
is  however,  entirely  different  in  an  autocratic  country 
like  Russia,  where  the  great  masses  of  the  people  have 
for  ages  been  kept  in  ignorance  or  have  been  educated 
in  that  singular  "indifference  to  the  severe  and  just 
demands  of  life,"  of  which  Gorky  is  so  bitterly  com- 
plaining. 


2B 


Says  Gorky:  "When  the  Russian  muzhik  (peasant) 
hears  of  the  persecutions  to  which  the  Jews  are  sub- 
jected, he  says,  with  the  equanimity  of  an  Easterner: 
'  The  innocent  is  not  prosecuted,  is  not  beaten. ' 

"He  at  least  might  have  known  that  in  Holy  Russia 
the  innocent  is  much  too  often  prosecuted  and  beaten 
but  his  ideas  of  the  just  and  the  guilty  have  been  con- 
founded for  ages.  The  sense  of  injustice  is  weakly  de- 
veloped in  his  struggling  soul,  distorted  by  long  ages  of 
servitude. 

"I  addition  to  the  people  there  is  one  more  element — 
'the  mob '—something  outside  of  society,  outside  of  cul- 
ture, united  by  the  dark  sense  of  hatred  to  everything 
that  is  beyond  his  intelligence  and  that  is  defenseless. 

"The  Jews  are  defenseless  and  this  fact  is  especial- 
ly perilous  under  the  conditions  of  Russian  life.  Dos- 
toyevsky  who  knew  thoroughly  the  Russian  soul  point- 
ed out  time  and  again  that  defenseless  only  excites  a 
voluptuous  tendency  to  criminality." 

The  defenseless  state  of  the  Russian  Jew  is  the  cru- 
cial point  of  the  problem.  For  decades  the  Jews  have 
been  treated  as  outlaws,  as  criminals,  whose  every  step 
or  activity  must  be  regulated  and  watched  by  the  gov- 
ernment. *  The  Russian  masses  have  been  gradually 
educated  in  the  belief  "that  their  enemies  are  the  tri- 
or odt  si  (foreign  races)  and  first  and  foremost,  the  Jews. 
Then  "they  are  informed  that  the  Jews  love  to  drink 
the  blood  of  stolen  boys"  (the  Beiliss  case).  In  the 
course  of  many  pogroms  the  Russian  mob  was  taught 
the  lesson  of  violence  against  the  Jews  for  almost  any 
or  no  provocation  whatever.  It  is  this  defenselessness  of 
the  Jews  that  has  made  them  the  surest  target  for  the 
"weapons  of  sinister  demagogism,  in  defense  of  the  out- 
lived past;"  it  is  this  defenselessness  that  has  made  the 
Jews  the  easy  object  of  any  slander  however  unreason- 
able. It  is  only  in  respect  to  this  defenseless  people 
that  such  unheard  of  measures  as  wholesale  expulsions 

•  See  below,  part  1,  legal  position  of  Russian  Jewry— ante  war. 


?7 


and  the  taking  of  hostages  could  be  enforced.  The 
helplessness  of  the  Jewish  people,  its  outlawed  posi- 
tion is  the  ultimate  cause  of  the  unprecedented  Jewish 
tragedy  during  the  present  war. 

In  the  community  of  nations  as  among  individuals, 
there  are  basic  principles,  the  transgression  of  which 
cannot  be  tolerated  by  humanity.  Can  the  civilized 
world  possibly  endure  any"  longer  the  transgression  of 
the  basic  principles  of  law  and  justice  by  the  Russian 
Government  ? 

The  United  States  was  always  foremost  in  the  stand 
for  the  rights  of  oppressed  nationalities.  "Every  form 
of  religious  oppression  and  discrimination  is  contrary 
to  the  spirit  of  the  American  people."  Can  the  United 
States  any  longer  remain  a  passive  and  silent  witness  to 
the  unprecedented  oppression  and  persecution  of  a  help- 
less, anguished  people  by  a  government  condemned  by 
its  own  subjects? 


28 


PART  I 


LEGAL  POSITION  OF  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA 

Jews — A  Foreign  Race 

The  legal  position  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  is  determined 
by  the  "Code  of  Laws  as  to  Ranks  and  Classes"  (v.  IX), 
Sections  767-816,  and  by  the  "Institute  of  Passports" 
(v.  XIV),  Sections  67-75,  and  by  the  Appendix  to  Sec- 
tion 68  of  the  In.  of  P.,  consisting  of  23  sections. 

Russian  law  distinguishes  three  different  fundamental 
estates  or  classes  of  the  population.  (Sec.  1)  :  "Natural 
inhabitants,"  "Foreign  races"  (inorodtsi),  and  "For- 
eigners." The  Jews  are  included  in  the  second  group, 
"foreign  races"  (sec.  762).  In  the  same  group  are  in- 
cluded the  Samoyedi  of  the  Northern  and  Siberian 
Swamps,  the  Calmouck,  and  the  Kyrgis  and  other  small 
wandering  tribes  in  Middle  Asia  and  on  the  Steppes 
near  the  Ural  Mountains.  All  these  are  nomadic  tribes. 
The  Jews  have  nothing  in  common  with  them.  The 
Jewish  population,  mostly  urban,  is  engaged  in  com- 
merce and  industry,  and  has  reached  a  high  degree  of 
cultural  development. 

All  "foreign  races,"  except  the  Jews,  are  not  sub- 
jected to  any  legal  restrictions  or  disabilities.  The  Jews 
are  the  only  "foreign  race"  of  the  Russian  Empire 
which  is  subjected  to  numerous  restrictions  and  dis- 
abilities not  applying  to  any  other  nationality.  Most 
of  the  foreign  races  are  heathens.  The  law,  however, 
does  not  change  its  attitude  towards  the  members  of 
these  races,  when  they  become  converted  to  Christianity. 
The  legal  status  of  all  the  "foreign  races,"  excepting 
the  Jews,  does  not  depend  upon  the  religious  faith  of 
their  members. 


29 


Restrictions  of  Religious  Freedom 


The  case  is  entirely  different  with  the  Jews,  the  so- 
called  foreign  race  of  the  .Hebrew  faith.  Conversion 
to  Christianity  at  once  removes  the  legal  restrictions  and 
disabilities  to  which  the  Jew  is  otherwise  subjected,  and 
he  acquires  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  "nat- 
ural" inhabitants  (See.  776). 

The  legal  status  of  the  Jew,  or  rather  his  condition 
of  outlawry,  is  changed,  however,  only  when  he  is  con- 
verted to  Christianity  in  one  of  its  religious  denomina- 
tions, recognized  by  the  State,  viz. :  to  the  Orthodox 
Greek  Church,  the  Protestant  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
Churches.  Conversion,  for  instance,  to  the  Anglican 
Church,  Methodists,  and  so  on,  would  not  do  the  Rus- 
sian Jews  any  good,  in  so  far  as  his  legal  status  is  con- 
cerned. The  law,  moreover,  gives  preference  to  the  Or- 
thodox Greek  Church;  the  conversion  to  any  one  of 
the  other  two  recognized  Christian  denominations  is 
made  dependent  on  the  Minister  of  Internal  Affairs  to 
whom  the  prospective  convert  has,  in  every  individual 
case,  to  apply  for  a  special  permission,  whereas  no  such 
permission  is  demanded  from  the  convert  to  the  Ortho- 
dox Church.  In  the  absence  of  such  special  permission 
from  the  Ministry,  or  of  special  recognition  of  the  regu- 
larity of  the  rite  of  conversion  coming  from  the  Min- 
istry after  the  conversion  has  taken  place,  the  legal 
status  of  the  convert  would  not  be  changed. 

The  fundamental  and  other  laws  guarantee  religious 
freedom  to  all  the  subjects,  including  the  Jews.  With 
regard  to  the  last,  the  guarantees  must  evidently  be 
interpreted  in  a  limited  sense— to  wit,  in  the  sense  of 
freedom  to  officiate  according  to  the  rites  of  their  faith, 
for  the  legislation  as  well  as  the  administrative  practice 
of  the  government,  exert  an  enormous  psychological  in- 
fluence upon  the  will  of  the  Jew,  inducing  hinT  by  the 
weight  of  the  legal  restrictions  and  oppressions  to  re- 
nounce his  faith. 

30 


Pale  of  Settlement 


At  present  the  Jews  are  restricted  in  their  personal, 
civil  and  political  rights;  besides,  they  are  barred  from 
many  fields  of  economic  and  professional  activities. 
Only  a  very  few  of  these  restrictions  are  also  applied 
to  several  of  the  other  nationalities,  such  as  the  right 
to  acquire  real  property  or  to  be  eligible  for  civil  ser- 
vice. All  the  other  disabilities  are  directed  exclusively 
against  the  Russian  subjects  of  the  Hebrew  faith. 

The  Jews  are  restricted  in  their  right  to  elect  freely 
a  place  of  domicile  and  in  their  freedom  of  movement 
from  place  to  place.  Their  unconditional  and  permanent 
domicile  rights  are  confined  to  towns  and  cities  of  the 
Jewish  Pale  of  Settlement  and  of  the  Kingdom  of  Po- 
land only. 

The  Pale  of  Settlement  and  Kingdom  of  Poland,  where 
the  Jews  are  permitted  to  live  in  all  town  settlements, 
embrace  at  present  the  following  provinces: 

I.  Kingdom  of  Poland : 

1)  Warsaw,  2)Kalish,  3)Kelets,  4)  Lomzha, 
5)  Lublin,  6)  Pyatrokov,  7)Plotsk,  8)  Ra- 
dom,  9)  Suvalk,  10)  Siedlets.*f 

II.  Pale : 

1)  Besarabia,  2)  Vilna,  3)  Vitebsk,  4)  Vol- 
insk,  5)  Grodno,  6)  Ekaterinoslav,  7) 
Kiev,*  8)  Kovno,  9)  Minsk,  10)  Moghilev, 
11)  Podolsk,  12)  Poltava,  13)  Tavrida,  f 
14)  Kherson,  **  and  15)  Chernigov. 

But  even  in  these  25  provinces  of  the  Pale  the  Jews 
are  permitted  to  live  in  cities  and  towns  only.  They 
have  no  rights  of  domicile  in  country  places  such  as 
villages,  health  resorts,  etc.  (Code  of  Laws,  v.  IX,  ar- 
ticle 779.) 

*t  By  the  law  of  June  23,  1912,  the  Government  of  Siedlets  was  abolished 
and  a  new  government — Kholm — was  formed  from  parts  of  the  lormer 
governments  of  Siedlets  and  Lomzha. 

*  Excluding  the  City  of  Kiev. 

t  Excluding  the  City  of  Sevastopol. 

•*  Excluding  the  City  of  Nikolaiev. 


SI 


A  few  specified  (-see  below)  privileged  groups  of  Jews 
are,  however,  permitted  to  settle  and  domicile  more  or  less 
freely  outside  of  the  Pale.  And  by  the  Imperial  Order 
of  August  11,  1904,  these  groups  also  were  granted  the 
right  of  domicile  in  villages  and  country  places  of  the 
Pale. 

There  is,  however,  no  uniformity  in  the  law  regulat- 
ing the  domicile  rights  of  the  Jews  with  respect  to  all 
the  provinces  laying  outside  of  the  Pale.  Side  by  side 
with  the  normal  majority  of  the  outside  of  the  Pale 
governments,  the  law  specifies,  on  the  one  hand,  a  num- 
ber of  provinces  from  which  even  those  few  privileged 
groups  of  Jews  which  enjoy  universal  and  domicile 
rights  are  barred.  (Such  are  the  territories  of  the  Cos- 
sacks, Moscow,  Eastern  provinces,  etc.)  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  localities  composing  a  sort  of  special 
Pale  of  Settlement,  where  residence  is  allowed  to  a  num- 
ber of  privileged  groups  of  Jews,  who  have  no  right  of 
domicile  outside  of  the  Pale  in  general.  (Such  are  the 
governments  of  Kurland  and  Lifland  and  the  cities  of 
Nikolayev,  Sevastopol,  Kiev,  etc.) 

Occupational  Restrictions 

The  Jews  are  restricted  in  their  rights  to  engage  in 
commerce  or  industries,  such  as  mining,  oil  refining  and 
in  liquor  and  wine  distilleries. 

Educational  Restrictions 

The  J ews  are  limited  in  their  educational  rights ;  they 
are  admitted  into  secondary  schools  and  universities  only 
within  the  limits  of  a  small  percentage  of  the  entire 
school  population,  and  are  completely  excluded  from  some 
universities,  such  as  the  Military  Medical  Academy.  In 
secondary  schools  of  the  capitals,  five  per  cent ;  outside  of 
the  Pale,  ten  per  cent,  and  within  the  Pale  fifteen  per 
cent  are  admitted,  while  in  the  universities,  in  capitals, 
three  per  cent,  five  per  cent  from  outside  of  the  Pale! 
and  ten  per  cent  from  those  in  the  Pale  are  admitted.  * 

*  See  interesting  circular  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Education,  p.  117, 


32 


Discrimination  in  Military  Service 

The  Jews  are  subjected  to  stricter  regulations  with 
respect  to  military  service,  and  contribute  proportion- 
ately a  greater  number  of  recruits  than  the  rest  of  the 
population.  Besides,  they  are  subjected  to  a  kind  of 
reciprocal  family  responsibility  for  arrears.  "The  fam- 
ily of  a  Jew  who  evades  military  service  is  subjected  to 
a  fine  of  Three  Hundred  Rubles."  This  fine  has  in 
numberless  cases  been  collected  where  there  indeed  was 
no  evasion  at  all;  in  many  cases  a  family  was  fined  be- 
cause a  recruit  came  late  to  roll-call,  though  the  recruit 
may  have  been  enrolled  in  the  ranks ;  fines  were  imposed 
in  cases  when  the  recruit  was  confined  to  a  public  hos- 
pital or  asylum,  etc. 

From  the  total  number  of  young  men  of  the  age  of 
twenty-one  who  were  entered  on  the  lists  of  available 
recruits,  there  were,  in  1906,  91.07%  of  Gentiles  and 
5.52%  of  Jews;  in  1907  there  were  91.25%  Gentiles  and 
7.24%  Jews.  This  proportion  of  prospective  Jewish 
recruits  is  larger  than  the  proportion  of  Jews  to  the 
total  population;  the  last  being  only  4.13%  according  to 
the  census  of  1897.  This  discrepancy  unfavorable  to 
the  Jews  is  to  be  explained  by  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Jewish  emigration.  The  Russian  administration  usually 
enters  Jewish  emigrants  in  the  lists  of  available  re- 
cruits, thus  inflating  the  contingent  of  prospective  Jew- 
ish recruits.  But  even  from  this  inflated  contingent 
the  Jews  are  furnishing  a  greater  share  to  the  ranks 
of  the  army  than  the  rest  of  the  population.  Constitu- 
ting only  5.52%  of  all  the  registered  prospective  recruits 
in  1906  and  only  5.24%  of  those  in  1907,  the  Jews  fur- 
nished 6.42%  of  all  the  enlisted  recruits  in  1906,  and 
6.18%  of  those  enlisted  in  1907,  whereas  the  Gentiles, 
composing  91.07%  of  all  the  prospective  recruits  in  1906 
and  91.25%  of  those  in  1907,  furnished  to  the  ranks  only 
89.24%  and  89.58%  of  all  the  men  enlisted  in  those 
years  correspondingly. 


33 


Restrictions  to  Practice  Law 

The  Jews  are  limited  in  their  right  of  being  admitted 
to  the  bar.  Jewish  advocate  assistants  are  admitted  only 
by  special  permission  in  each  case  of  the  Minister  of 
Justice.  Many  years  (1899-1904)  passed  without  a 
single  permission  being  granted.  During  these  years  not 
only  was  no  Jewish  assistant  advocate  admitted  to  the 
bar,  but  no  one  succeeded  even  in  obtaining  the  so-called 
"certificate"  allowing  assistants  independently  to  prac- 
tice law  in  the  courts.  After  1905  permission  admitting 
Jews  to  the  bar  were  freely  granted,  but  since  1908  a 
definite  proportion  of  not  over  10%  of  all  the  advocates 
was  practically  introduced  by  the  ministry. 

In  1912  the  Senate  extended  the  limitation  requiring 
special  permits  from  the  Minister  of  Justice,  not  only 
to  full-fledged  advocates,  but  also  to  advocate  assistants  * 

Barred  from  Office  of  Notrary  Public 

The  Jews  are  barred  from  administrative  regulations 
since  the  eighties  from  being  notary  publics;  moreover, 
they  are  barred  even  from  being  employed  in  the  offices 
of  notary  publics  as  clerks,  stenographers,  etc. 

Barred  from  Public  and  Civil  Service 

The  Jew,  with  the  exception  of  physicians  and  per- 
sons having  a  doctor's  degree  admitting  them  to  a  few 
special  classes  of  public  service,  is  not  admitted  to  civil, 
municipal,  zemstvo  or.  other  kind  of  public  service. 

Restrictions  of  Jury  Privileges 

Jews  are  admitted  to  serve  on  juries.  Only  a  small 
percentage  proportion  of  Jews  to  the  entire  population 
of  the  Judicial  District  within  the  Pale  are  admitted  to 
serve  on  juries.  No  Jews  can  serve  as  Chairmen  or  El- 
ders of  the  jury.  Jewish  jurors  are  not  permitted  to 
sit  in  cases  involving  offences  against  religion  or  in- 

*  See  below  p.  109. 


34 


volving  the  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

Barred  from  Municipal  and  County  Councils 

Since  1890  Jews  are  debarred  from  participating  in 
the  electoral  meetings  and  conventions  for  the  election 
of  Zemstvo  delegates,  and  are  not  eligible  as  such;  they 
are  totally  excluded  from  any  participation  in  the 
County  Councils  (Zemstvos) .  In  municipal  self-govern- 
ment the  participation  of  Jews  is  also  limited  and  con- 
ditioned upon  the  humiliating  good-will  of  the  adminis- 
tration. Outside  the  Pale  the  Jews  are  totally  excluded 
from  municipal  self-government.  In  the  cities  of  the 
Pale  Jewish  aldermen  are  not  elected  by  the  voting 
burghers,  but  are  appointed  by  the  administration  from 
special  lists  of  Jewish  citizens.  The  number  of  Jewish 
aldermen  in  the  city  council  to  be  appointed  depends 
upon  the  discretion  of  the  administration;  it  must  not, 
however,  exceed  ten  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
aldermen  of  the  city  council.  Such  Jewish  aldermen  are 
not  eligible  to  any  of  the  executive  bodies  of  the  muni- 
cipal councils.  Exclusion  of  the  Jews,  who  make  up  the 
largest  part  of  the  commercial  and  industrial  popula- 
tion of  the  Pale,  resulted  not  only  in  hardships  to  the 
Jews,  but  also  injured  the  municipalities  in  general. 

Privileged  Jews 

Most  of  these  disabilities  and  legal  restrictions  are  ex- 
tended to  all  Jews  independently  of  their  rank  or  class, 
or  of  their  social  status  and  education.  Only  a  few 
privileged  categories  of  Jews  are  partly  exempted  from 
the  most  onerous  of  the  Jewish  disabilities.  To  these 
privileged  groups  of  the  Russian  Jewry  belong:  1)  per- 
sons with  a  university  education;  2)  those  army  invalids 
who  have  served,  under  the  old  recruiting  regulation, 
over  25  years;  3)  members  of  the  medical  profession; 
4)  Councils  of  Commerce  or  of  Manufacture;  5)  mer- 
chants of  the  first  guild;  6)  artisans,  and  7)  Jewish 
women  who  have  become  prostitutes. 


Domicile  Rights  of  Privileged  Jews 

Only  the  first  two  groups  are  accorded  unconditional 
permanent  domicile  rights  outside  of  the  Pale;  only 
these  groups  and  a  very  limited  number  of  others  are 
permitted  to  live  outside  of  the  Pale  independently  of 
their  occupation,  trade  or  vocation.  In  all,  the  number 
of  Jews  enjoying  this  unconditional  domicile  right  out- 
side of  the  Pale  does  not  exceed  50  to  60  thousand. 
The  domicile  right  of  all  the  other  groups  is  conditional, 
dependent  upon  the  occupation,  trade  or  vocation  they 
are  engaged  in.  They  must  engage  exclusively  in  these 
trades,  occupations  or  vocations.  Altogether  the  number 
of  Jews  living  outside  of  the  Pale  amounts  to  only  6% 
of  the  total  Jewish  population  in  Russia. 

Freedom  of  Movement  Restricted 

There  are  extraordinary  restrictions  in  force  limiting 
the  right  of  movement  of  Jewish  merchants  or  Jewish 
commercial  travelers  from  the  Pale  of  Settlement.  The 
law  accords  them  the  right  to  visit  in  their  business 
travels  only  cities  and  towns;  they  are  not  permitted  to 
stop  over  at  railroad  stations  or  villages  and  country 
places.  Besides,  the  law  grants  the  Jewish  merchant 
or  the  Jewish  commercial  traveler  the  right  every  year 
to  visit  cities  and  towns  outside  the  Pale  for  periods  of 
time  not  exceeding  a  total  of  three  to  six  months,  de- 
pendent upon  the  guild,  first  or  second,  to  which  the 
given  commercial  traveler  belongs.  The  law  also  puts 
on  the  commercial  traveler  the  burden  of  proving  that 
he  is  really  going  for  the  sole  purpose  of  buying  goods 
and  not  selling,  or  for  any  other  purpose,  and  that  he 
Had  not  yet  exhausted  his  allowed  three  or  six  months' 
term.  The  lowest  poilce  official  may  put  the  documents 
of  any  Jewish  commercial  traveler  outside  of  the  Pale 
under  suspicion,  and  the  least  omission  or  inaccuracy  of 
the  documents,  even  a  simple  suspicion  of  such  an  inac- 
curacy, will  immedately  bring  forth  the  stamp  with  the 
red  inscription  reading,  "To  leave  within  twenty -four 


36 


hours."  This  stamp  ou  the  passport  obliges  the  Jewish 
commercial  traveler  immediately  to  go  back  to  the  Pale, 
no  stops  whatever  being  allowed  him,  as  otherwise  he 
may  be  arrested  and  dispatched  to  the  Pale  in  company 
of  prisoners  and  criminals,  escorted  by  guards.  Under 
the  best  circumstances,  his  passport  would  be  taken 
away  and  he  would  be  given  a  special  pass  permitting 
him  to  travel  directly  to  the  Pale,  as  a  man  under 
police  surveillance. 


Under  Police  Surveillance 


As  soon  as  a  Jew  steps  over  the  frontier  of  a  town  or 
city  in  the  Pale,  or  dares  trespass  the  frontier  of  the 
Pale,  he  is  immediately  subjected  to  the  surveillance  of 
the  police  and  other  departments  of  the  government, 
who  are  always  and  everywhere  probing  his  right  of 
domicile,  of  securing  licenses  to  engage  in  industrial 
or  commercial  occupations,  of  making  contracts,  of  mort- 
gaging, renting  real  property,  of  building  factories  or 
mills,  of  trading  with  the  given  kind  of  goods,  etc.  There 
is  no  step,  no  act  which  the  Jew,  outside  of  the  city  or 
town  in  the  Pale  or  outside  of  the  Pale,  can  undertake 
without  formal  permission  of  the  police ;  the  laws  in  all 
these  respects  are  so  indefinite  and  are  crowded  by  so 
many  frequent  contradictory  interpretations  and  eluci- 
dations of  the  Senate,  that  the  field  for  the  discretion 
of  the  police  is  almost  limitless.  In  the  few  cases,  when 
no  formal  permission  by  the  authorities  is  demanded, 
their  silent  approval  is,  however,  indispensable.  For  the 
least  doubt  as  to  the  legality  of  any  kind  of  activity  of 
a  Jew  outside  the  town  limits  of  the  Pale  or  outside 
the  Pale,  would  suffice  to  deprive  that  Jew  of  his  domi- 
cile right  as  well  as  of  his  right  to  engage  in  that  special 
business  outside  the  Pale.  These  regulations  doom  the 
Jews  to  endless  solicitations  and  sacrifices,  which  may 
rot,  however,  make  them  safe  "to-morrow."  The  re- 
fusal to  submit  to  the  demands  of  the  petty  officials, 
the  anonymous  information  against  a  Jew  by  a  com- 


37 


petitor,  are  quite  sufficient  to  result  in  his  being  ex- 
pelled. * 

Excepting  persons  with  a  university  education  and  a 
few  other  privileged  groups  having  unconditional  domi- 
cile right  outside  the  Pale,  all  Jews  retain  their  right  of 
domicile  and  to  trade  outside  the  Pale  only  so  long  as 
they  continue  to  be  engaged  in  their  specialty  (in  the 
case  of  artisans  or  medical  professions,  except  physi- 
cians) or  as  long  as  they  perform  their  services  (in  the 
case  of  commercial  employees  and  domestic  servants). 
The  determination  of  the  question  whether  the  particular 
Jew  is  indeed  continuing  in  his  professional  work,  or  is 
performing  his  services,  is,  of  course,  left  to  the  discre- 
tion of  the  police. 

Rights  of  Jewish  Artisans 

All  these,  almost  numberless,  burdensome  regulations 
fall  especially  heavily  upon  the  artisans  with  their  lim- 
ited means  for  litigation.  And  the  enjoyment  of  the 
domicile  rights  outside  the  Pale  accorded  the  artisans 
by  the  law  is  thus  practically  made  prohibitory.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  number  of  Jewish  artisans  who  suc- 
ceed in  settling  outside  of  the  Pale  is  rather  negligible. 
According  to  the  last  census  of  1897,  93.3%  of  all  the 
Jewish  artisans  were  living  within  the  Pale.  As  far  as 
is  known,  this  proportion  has  not  changed  to  any  extent 
in  later  years,  consequently  only  6.7%  of  all  Jewish 
artisans  succeeded  in  overcoming  the  burdensome  regula- 
tions, upon  which  their  right  of  domicile  outside  of  the 
Pale  is  conditioned.  ** 


Treated  as  Criminals 

Besides,  all  persons  enjoying  by  virtue  of  their  occu- 
pational status  (as  artisans,  etc.)  the  right  of  domicile 
outside  the  Pale  of  Settlement  are  attached  permanently 
to  their  place  of  occupation  or  service  and  are  com- 

*  See  below,  case  of  Pliner,  p.  113. 

**  This,  too,  is  rather  an  overestimate,  since  many  old  residents  of 
theProvinces  outside  of  the  Pale  enjoying  their  domicile  right  on  that 
basis  are  included  in  the  number  of  these  6.7  per  cent. 


38 


pletely  deprived  of  the  right  to  move  about  the  rest  of 
the  Empire.  For  even  a  temporary  visit  to  any  other 
locality,  though  of  the  same  district,  "a  special  permis- 
sion by  the  local  police,  the  governor,  or  the  Minister  of 
Internal  Affairs  (dependent  upon  the  purpose  or  dura- 
tion of  the  visit)  is  demanded.  In  this  respect  the  legal 
position  of  the  Jews  differs  in  no  detail  from  the  position 
of  criminals  and  exiles  or  of  persons  who  are  under 
police  surveillance. 

Foreign  Jews  in  Russia 

Foreign  Jews  are  subjected  to  the  same  disabilities  as 
the  native  Russian  Jews  (Code  of  Laws,  v.  VIIT,  Sec. 
201-208). 

Reason  of  Oppression — Loyalty  to  Faith 

Attempts  are  frequently  made  to  explain  at  least  some 
of  the  numerous  legal  restrictions  and  disabilities  of  the 
Russian  Jews  by  economic  and  moral  reasons.  It  is 
at  times  alleged  that  the  suppression  of  the  Russian  Jews 
is  necessary  in  order  to  protect  the  "natural  inhabit- 
ants," the  Russian  masses,  from  alleged  "harmful" 
economic  and  moral  influences  of  the  Jew.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  in  one  of  its 
authorized  denominations  immediately  removes  from  the 
Jew  all  his  legal  disabilities.  Neither  the  moral  charac- 
ter nor  the  economic  activities  of  the  Jew  are  investi- 
gated ;  the  ' '  religious  conscience ' '  of  the  Jew  is  the  sole 
reason  for  his  oppression.  The  only  question  the  Rus- 
sian laws  put  to  the  Jew  is  whether  he  is  willing  to  re- 
nounce his  faith  for  the  enjoyment  of  equal  rights. 
This  being  answered  in  the  negative,  his  moral  and  eco- 
nomic activities  are  under  suspicion ;  the  State  declares 
him  "guilty"  of  loyalty  to  his  faith  and  consigns  him 
to  practically  the  position  of  an  outlaw. 


39 


ADDENDA  TO  PART  I 


Extracts  from  Original  Russian  Laws  Regulating  pos 
ition  of  Jews  Which  Were  in  Force  at  the 
Beginning  of  the  War 


CODE  OF  LAWS  AS  TO  RANKS  AND  CLASSES 

Russian  Jews  Included  in  Number  of  Foreign  Races 

Sec.  7:  "Different  rights  are  instituted  in  the  state: 
(1)  for  the  natural  inhabitants,  making  up  the  city  and 
country  population;  (2)  for  'foreign  races'  inorodtsi, 
and  (3)  for  foreigners." 

Sec.  762 :  "To  the  number  of  'foreign  races,'  inorodtsi 
inhabiting  the  Russian  Empire  belong:  (1)  the  foreign 
races  of  Siberia;  (2)  the  Samoyeds  of  the  Province  of 
Arkhangelsk;  (3)  the  nomadic  foreign  races  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Stavropol;  (4)  the  Kalmucks,  wandering  in  the 
Provinces  of  Astrakhan  and  Stavropol;  (5)  the  Kirghiz 
of  the  Internal  Horde;  (6)  the  foreign  races  of  the 
territories  of  Akmolinsk,  Lemirechensk,  Uralsk,  and 
Turguai;  (7)  the  population  of  foreign  race  of  the 
Transcaspian  Territory;  (8)  the  Jews." 

Sec.  767:  "Jews  who  are  Russian  subjects  are  sub- 
jected to  the  general  laws  in  all  cases  in  which  there  are 
no  special  rules  enacted  concerning  the  Jews. 

Change  of  Domicile  by  Jews  Permitted  Only  in  Cities 
and  Towns 

Sec.  779:  Jews  within  the  Pale  of  their  permanent 
Settlement,  as  well  as  everywhere  where  they  are  grant- 
ed permanent  domicile,  can  change  domicile  from  one 
place  to  another  in  accordance  with  general  rules. 


40 


Jews  Permanently  Attached  to  Villages  Where  They 
Lived  Before  May  3,  1882 

"Note  1.  By  Imperial  Order:  As  a  temporary  meas- 
ure,* and  until  the  general  revision  in  the  duly  pre- 
scribed manner  of  the  laws  concerning  the  -lews,  they  be 
forbidden  to  settle  anew  outside  of  cities  and  towns  in 
the  governments  of  their  permanent  settlement.'' 

"Note  2.  By  interpretation  of  the  rules  laid  down 
in  the  Note  1  of  this  (779)  article,  be  it  ordained:  (1) 
Change  of  residence  by  Jews  from  villages  where  they 
resided  before  May  3,  1882,  into  other  villages  shall  be 
absolutely  forbidden.  (2)  Jews  who,  after  the  3d  of 
May,  1882,  but  before  the  promulgation  of  the  opinion 
of  the  Council  of  State  (4924),  sanctioned  by  H.  M. 
December  29,  1887,  changed  their  residence  from  one 
village  to  another,  situated  within  the  permanent  pale 
of  Jewish  Settlement,  shall  be  allowed  permanent  resi- 
dence in  those  villages  where  they  were  found  by  the 
above-mentioned  opinion  of  the  Council  of  State." 

Renunciation  of  His  Faith  Removes  All  Legal  Disa- 
bilities From  the  Jew 

Sec.  776:  "Jews  who  have  been  converted  to  (Chris- 
tianity may  be  entered  according  to  their  choice  into  the 
lists  of  the  city  or  country  Communities  on  the  basis 
of  the  general  rules.  By  the  acceptance  of  the  Christian 
Faith  they  are  excluded  from  their  former  communi- 
ties and  assessments." 


*This  "temporary  measure"  is  in  force  since  1882  up  to  the  present 
time  with  no  prospect  for  change  in  near  future. — Translator. 


41 


PART  II 


Documentary  Account  of  Oppression  and  Persecu- 
tion of  the  Russian  Jews  during  the 
Present  War 


CHAPTER  1 

THE  -IE WIS  AND  THE  WAR 

(Report  by  Central  Committee  of  the  Party  of 
People's  Freedom  (Constitutional  Democrats) 
On  the  Jewish  Question  in  Russia,  Read  at  the 
Joint  Conference  of  the  Delegates  of  the  Party 
and  of  the  Constitutional  Democratic  Members 
in  the  Duma  Held  in  Petrograd  on  June  19-21, 
1915. 

(The  Constitutional  Democrats,  or  Kadets,  Represent  the 
Progressive  Element  in  the  Russian  Parliament.  Their 
Leader,  Professor  Milyukoff,  Visited  the  United  States  Some 
Years  Ago.) 

Patriotic  Fervor  of  Jews 

In  connection  with  the  events  of  the  war-time,  the 
Jewish  question,  among  other  national  problems,  has 
assumed  a  special  aspect.  Unlike  the  Polish  or  Ukrain- 
ian question,  the  Jewish  question  is  not  depended  on 
great  administrative  or  political  reforms;  here  are  no 
problems  the  solution  of  which  depends  on  territorial 
acquisition  and  on  the  international  situation  in  the 
future,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Armenian  question.  The 
Jewish  problem,  as  well  as  many  others,  remains  our 
internal  question. 

The  beginning  of  the  war  was  marked  by  a  great 
outburst  of  patriotic  enthusiasm  among  the  Jews  all 
over  the  Empire.  Mobilization  among  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation was  completed  practically  without  arrears.  The 


42 


newspapers  recorded  striking  numbers  of  Jewish  volun- 
teers. Among  these  were  students  of  foreign  universi- 
ties who,  by  the  established  Government  maximum  for 
Jews,  were  deprived  of  the  right  to  study  in  Russia. 
A  considerable  number  of  the  youth  who  were  studying 
abroad  entered  the  Allied  armies.  The  press  reproduced 
petitions  from  Jews,  who  were  enrolled  in  the  subsidiary 
services,  requesting  to  be  transferred  to  the  fighting 
units.  In  the  capitals  and  other  cities  many  inspiring 
Jewish  patriotic  manifestations  took  place,  having  the 
character  of  a  natural  expression  of  the  people's 
enthusiasm. 

Jewish  Communities  Organizing  Relief 

At  the  same  time  in  almost  all  the  Jewish  communi- 
ties within  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  as  well  as  outside 
of  the  Pale,  hospitals  for  wounded  soldiers,  without  dis- 
tinction of  nationality  or  religious  denomination,  were 
being  equipped.  The  establishment  of  hospitals  and 
the  organization  of  relief  for  the  war  sufferers  was 
often  accompanied  by  the  publication  of  addresses  to 
the  population,  explaining  the  relation  of  the  Jews  to 
the  war.  It  would  be  of  interest  to  bring  here  one  of 
these  documents — an  address  coming  from  the  very 
centre  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  from  the  old  Jewish 
community  of  Vilna. 

"...  Our  dear  fatherland,  the  great  Russia,  is  challenged 
to  a  terrible,  bloody  war;  there  approaches  a  bitter  struggle 
for  the  integrity  and  greatness  of  Russia.  Our  brethren  in 
the  Jewish  faith  all  over  the  Russian  Empire  have  already 
responded  to  their  duty  of  citizenship,  and  many  have  vol- 
untarily entered  the  army  to  be  sent  to  the  front.  But 
present  conditions  demand  from  us,  who  have  not  the  op- 
portunity and  fortune  to  fight  for  the  glory  of  their  father- 
land with  arms,  an  adequate  sacrifice.  A  holy  duty  lies 
with  us  with  regard  to  those  who  have  left  their  families, 
who  are  defending  our  fatherland  and  ourselves  from  the 
enemy  with  their  life  and  blood.  We,  the  representatives 
of  the  Jewish  community  of  the  city  of  Vilna,  the  oldest  in 
Russia,  situated  at  the  very  centre  of  the  theatre  of  the 
present  events,  take  the  liberty  to  appeal  strongly  to  our 
brethren  in  faith  immediately  to  undertake  the  organiza- 
tion for  the  relief  of  the  wounded  and  their  families." 


43 


No  Persecution  or  Oppression  Could  Estrange  Jews 
From  Their  Fatherland 

This  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  to  the  war  is 

reflected  to  the  Jewish  press.   The  organ  of  the  Russian 

Jews,  New  Voskhod,  wrote  in  its  issue  of  August  6,  1915, 

following  the  declaration  of  war: 

"We  were  born  and  grew  up  in  Russia;  here  rest  the 
remains  of  our  fathers.  We,  Russian  Jews,  are  tied  by  un- 
breakable ties  to  Russia,  and  the  memory  of  it  is  dearly 
cherished  by  our  brethren,  who,  by  will  of  fate,  have  been 
driven  across  the  ocean.  The  bearers  of  the  ideals  of  our 
lathers,  the  nucleus  of  the  world's  Jewry,  we  Russian. Jews 
are  at  the  same  time  inseparably  allied  with  our  mother 
country  where  we  have  been  living  for  centuries  and  from 
which  there  is  no  power  that  can  separate  us — neither 
prosecution  nor  oppression.  In  this  historical  moment, 
when  our  fatherland  is  threatened  by  foreign  invasion, 
when  brute  force  has  armed  itself  against  the  great  ideals 
of  humanity,  the  Russian  Jewry  will  manfully  step  forward 
to  the  battlefield  and  do  its  sacred  duty.  .  .  ." 

Attitude  of  Jews  Explained 

hi  its  succeeding  issue,  this  journal  comes  nearer  the 
question : 

"To  many,  the  striking  contrast  between  our  recent  past, 
which  should  have  determined  our  present  attitude,  and 
the  attitude  which  we  see  to-day,  seems  to  be  unexpected 
and  unreasonable.  Notwithstanding  all  the  terrors  of  yes- 
terday, we  Jews  to-day  treasure  the  unity  and  indivisibility 
of  Russia  and  her  position  as  a  great  power  in  the  world. 

Being  mainly  a  people  of  burgher  class,  which  ac- 
complishes the  economically  important  social  function  in 
the  state,  of  binding  together  and  animating  all  the  living- 
cells  of  the  state  organism,  all  of  its  parts  and  divisions; 
a  people  of  merchants,  manufacturers,  bankers,  traveling 
salesmen,  brokers,  artisans  and  laborers — the  Jews  com- 
prehend more  deeply  and  thoroughly  the  idea  of  universal 
cohesion,  of  common  unity,  of  the  indivisibility  of  Russia, 
than  those  to  whom  these  ideas  are  only  abstract,  if  sub- 
lime, conceptions.  We  know  that  those  provinces  of  our 
Empire  that  are  coveted  by  the  enemies  of  the  Empire, 
Austria  and  Germany,  will,  without  question,  have  lost  their 
social  and  economic  importance,  if  the  predatory  plans  of 
the  enemy  states  were  to  succeed. 

Faith  in  Russia's  Regeneraton 

"Without  the  free  Baltic  ports;  without  free  transit 
through  Poland,  it  would  be  impossible  for  Russia  to  re- 
main on  the  road  of  progress,  to  exist  as  a  modern  state. 


4 1 


Riga,  Byalostok,  Warsaw,  Lodz,  would  lose  their  present, 
raison  d'etre,  would  perish  if  they  were  to  be  separated 
from  the  Empire.  Like  the  Poles,  the  Armenians,  we 
treasure  that  nucleus  of  seven  millions  of  Jews,  which  has 
grown  up  in  the  course  of  centuries  in  Russia.  From  a 
purely  Jewish  national  view  point,  it  would  be  a  disaster, 
if  this  kernel  were  to  be  divided  into  several  parts.  The 
Jewish  masses  trust  that  Russia,  victorious  through  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  people  and  the  universal  aspiration  to- 
wards victory,  will  emerge  from  the  threatening  danger 
regenerated.  The  Jews  trust  that  with  the  vanishing  of 
the  mailed  fist,  that  creation  of  Germany,  the  spirit  of  this 
fighting  militarism  that  swallows  up  the  prime  of  the  nation, 
will  also  be  destroyed,  and  that  humanity  will  come  nearer 
to  the  ideals  of  the  olden  prophets.    .    .  ." 

The  best  evidence  that  the  New  Voskhod  reflects  the 
spirit  of  the  Jewish  masses  and  intellectuals  is  the  fact 
that  in  the  time  of  the  war  the  journal  increased  its 
circulation  more  than  fourfold  (from  3,000  to  13,500). 
With  this  circulation,  the  New  Voskhod  was  suspended 
by  the  authorities  for  its  harmful  influences.  It  should 
be  added  that  the  same  point  of  view  is  defended  and 
elaborated  by  the  Zionistic  Razsvyet  and  by  all  the 
Yiddish  newspapers  published  in  Vilna,  Warsaw  and 
Odessa,  and  having  a  circulation  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  copies. 

Jewish  Declaration  in  the  Duma 

The  sentiments  of  Jewish  society  were  summarized  in 
the  declaration  read  at  the  historic  session  of  the  Duma 
on  August  8,  1914,  by  a  member  of  our  party,  N.  Freed- 
man.  The  statement  asserts  that  "in  the  great  enthusi- 
asm which  has  seized  upon  the  nation  and  peoples  of 
Russia,  the  Jews  are  marching  to  the  battlefield  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  all  the  peoples  of  Russia;  there  are  no 
forces  that  can  tear  the  Jews  away  from  their  father- 
land to  which  they  are  bound  by  ties  centuries  old." 

Government   Hints   Maltreatment   of   Jews   to  be 
Continued 

Under  the  first  impression  of  all  these  facts,  the  re- 
actionary elements  and  the  reactionary  press  at  first 
seemed  to  have  shifted  their  bearings.   There  was  mani- 


45 


tested,  among  some  of  tlie  representatives  of  the  groups 
of  the  Right,  a  strange  and  suspicious  tendency  to  re- 
forms.  The  Novoye  Vremya  spoke  of  unity  and  a  desire 
to  forget  past  injustice.  But  from  the  Government  came 
the  hint  that  everything  was  to  remain  as  of  old.  It  was 
indeed  impossible  not  to  see  such  a  warning  in  the  atti- 
tude of  the  government  towards  the  domiciliary  rights 
of  the  families  of  the  Jewish  reservists  called  to  the 
colors;  in  the  relegation  into  the  Pale  of  Settlement  of 
wounded  Jewish  soldiers ;  in  the  refusal  of  permission  to 
the  relatives  of  wounded  soldiers  located  outside  of  the 
Pale,  to  visit  their  wounded.    It  began  to  be  asserted 
that  the  Jews  were  trading  on  their  patriotism  and  for 
the  immediate  grant  of  equal  rights.  Notwithstanding 
the  absurdity  of  this  theory,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  in  none  of  the  Jewish  declarations  was  there  any 
mention  of  the  demand  for  equal  rights,  and  that  on 
the  contrary,  they  always  emphasized  that  in  the  mo- 
ment of  imminent  danger  it  is  necessary  to  forget  the 
old  and  to  leave  all  the  hopes  for  the  future,  this  legend, 
in  various  forms,  was  repeated  in  the  "patriotic"  press 
until  another,  a  much  more  dangerous  weapon,  was 
found:  the  accusation  of  wholesale  treachery.  This 
second  phase  led  directly  to  a  third,  the  one  still  in 
being:  governmental  repression  of  the  Jewish  popula- 
tion. 

Baseless  Accusations  in  Wholesale  Treachery 

Cases  of  treachery  will,  of  course,  be  found  among  a 
frontier  population.  But  it  is  intolerable,  with  respect 
to  such  cases,  that  one  should  launch  forth  a  statement 
based  on  unverified  data.  The  bulk  of  such  cases  are 
tried  by  court  martial.  No  records  of  the  proceedings 
are  kept  to  tell  us  whether  "the  convictions  were  based  on 
facts  or  on  rumors  and  legends,  fed  by  olden  prejudices. 
While  there  exists  even  the  smallest  degree  of  prejudice 
against  an  entire  group  of  the  population,  this  evil  rises 
to  particular  importance.  Every  case  of  punishment 
for  espionage  in  itself  becomes  a  new  pretext  of  whole- 


it; 


sale  accusations,  convincing  to  those  who  themselves 
believe  in  the  legend  of  wholesale  treachery,  or  who 
desire  to  use  it  for  their  own  political  purposes. 

Accusations  Break  Down  After  Slightest  Investigation 

The  only  courts  which  administer  justice  in  the  war 
zone  with  something  of  the  general  guarantees  of  judicial 
procedure,  and,  what  is  most  important,  which  keep 
records  of  their  proceedings,  are  the  so-called  Corps' 
Courts  (the  Military  District  Courts  of  peace  time). 
We  succeeded  in  getting  the  indictments  of  nine  cases 
that  were  tried  in  these  courts,  counsel  for  the  defense 
participating  in  such  trials.  A  detailed  consideration 
of  these  cases  naturally  is  outside  of  the  scope  of  this 
report,  but  some  of  the  general  features  of  this  analysis 
are  indispensable.  Out  of  these  nine  cases,  only  eight 
are  related  to  the  so-called  Jewish  espionage;  the  ninth 
stands  by  itself.  Six  out  of  the  eight  cases  in  which 
Jews  were  brought  to  trial  resulted  in  the  acquittal  of 
the  accused.  In  all  these  cases,  the  accusations  when 
put  to  the  test  of  scrutiny,  however  elementary,  com- 
pletely broke  down;  in  one  case  the  prosecutor  even 
refused  to  proceed. 

Only  Two  Convictions;  But  Not  for  Espionage 

Only  two  cases  resulted  in  the  conviction  of  the 
accused.  In  one  case,  a  seventeen-year-old  boy,  Katz, 
was  accused  of  showing  to  four  German  soldiers 
the  route.  According  to  the  indictment,  none  of 
the  witnesses  heard  the  conversation  of  Katz  with 
the  Germans;  they  only  saw  Katz  point  with  his  hand 
in  the  direction  taken  by  the  Russian  soldiers.  Katz 
was  found  guilty,  and  was  convicted  to  fifteen  years  of 
hard  labor;  he  has  since  appealed  his  case  to  a  higher 
court.  The  indicted  in  the  other  case  were  a  Jew,  Guer- 
shanovich,  sixty  years  old,  and  Bartlish,  a  non-Jew,  the 
first  being  accused  of  accepting  the  office  of  burgomaster 
from  the  Germans,  and  the  second,  of  that  of  vice-burgo- 


17 


master,  while  the  Germans  were  in  possession  of  the 
place.  Both  men  conveyed  provisions  to  the  Germans 
during  their  stay  in  town.  Guershanovich  explained 
that  he  was  compelled  to  act  as  he  did  by  the  threats 
of  the  Germans,  in  whose  power  he  found  himself.  He 
was  sentenced  to  six  years  of  hard  labor. 

Provocation  by  Government  Agents — Source  of 
Wholesale  Treachery  Legend 

The  last  case,  the  ninth,  is  of  particular  interest.  The 
accused  were  not  Jews,  but  agents  of  the  counter-recon- 
noitering  detachment  [secret  service]  of  the  twelfth 
army  headquarters,  Stephan  Dereshak,  Stephan  Micko- 
vich  and  Nicholas  Chupanyuk.  .  .  .  The  volum- 
inous indictment  spread  over  twenty-three  typewritten 
pages,  narrates  the  circumstances  of  this  case.  The 
agent  of  the  counter-reconnoitering  detachment,  Dere- 
shak, on  February  26,  made  a  search  in  the  Cinemato- 
graph theatre  "Koreya"  in  the  city  of  Lomzha,  and 
discovered  there  two  table  telephones  of  German  make. 
He  further  found  in  the  rooms  of  the  operator  of  the 
said  Cinematograph,  Aaron  Bengueldorf,  a  Jew,  some 
electrical  appliances  and  191  rubles;  all  these  objects 
were  taken  to  headquarters. 

' '  The  said  case  of  Bengueldorf, ' '  continues  the  indict- 
ment, "was  forwarded,  on  March  9,  1915,  to  the  Chief 
of  the  Gendarmes  of  the  district  of  Lomzha,  Captain 
Beletsky,  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  investigation, 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  war.  The  investigation 
by  this  officer  established  signs  of  apparent  provocation 
by  the  agents  of  the  counter-reconnoitering  company 
and  by  the  peasant,  Nicholas  Chupanyuk.  It  has  also 
been  shown  that  the  same  agents  extorted  money  from 
relatives  of  Bengueldorf,  promising  to  set  him  free.  By 
an  order  of  the  General  Headquarters  of  the  twelfth 
army,  the  case  was  then  turned  over  to  the  military 
prosecutor  of  the  Corps  of  Guards  for  a  preliminary 
inquiry  against  the  agents,  Stephan  Dereshak,  Stephan 


48 


Mickevich,  Drood  arid  Nicholas  Chupanyuk,  in  accord- 
ance with  sections  377  and  378  of  the  Criminal  Code  of 
Laws. ' ' 

The  case  was  tried  in  Lomzha  on  April  14-15,  1915, 
and  by  the  verdict  of  the  Corps'  Court,  the  agent  Dere- 
shak  was  sentenced  to  six  years  of  penal  servitude. 
Chupanyuk,  as  a  minor,  was  sentenced  to  three  months' 
imprisonment  for  complicity,  and  Mickevich  was  ac- 
quitted. 

Calumnies  Against  Jews  to  Avert  Suspicion  From 
"Myassoyedoffs" 

This  last  case  brings  us  to  the  question  of  the  source 
of  the  wholesale  accusations  of  espionage  against  the 
Jews.  A  Eussian  writer  has  recently  remarked  that 
most  of  the  slanderous  accusations  against  the  Jews, 
including,  most  fatal  of  all,  the  accusation  of  treason 
in  Russia,  originated  in  the  region  where  Colonel  My- 
asayedoff*  was  then  active.  The  provocative  policy  of 
the  secret-service,  substantiated  by  the  above  verdict  of 
the  military  court,  makes  this  observation  of  special 
weight.  It  is  becoming  clear  in  whose  interests  and  for 
the  achievement  of  what  purposes  it  was  deemed  neces- 
sary to  circulate  in  Eussian  society  and  throughout  the 
ranks  of  the  army,  calumnies  against  that  part  of  the 
population  which  so  easily  lent  itself  to  suspicion.  This 
was  done  in  order  to  have  susjiicion  averted  from  these 
who  were  the  real  cause  of  German  omniscience  as  to 
our  military  plans. 

Jew  Between  Upper  and  Nether  Millestone  in  Poland 
Economic  Boycott 

Poland  was  the  chief  theatre  of  our  military  opera- 
tions especially  so  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  But  in 
Poland  the  relations  between  the  Jewish  and  the  Polish 

*  Col.  Myasayedoff  was  attached  to  the  staff  of  the  Russian  armies  in 
the  north.  He  supplied  information  to  the  German  armies,  which  was 
instrumental  in  the  crushing  defeat  of  the  Russians  by  Von  Hindenburg. 
He  was  tried,  found  guilty,  and  hanged. 


49 


population  have  been  extremely  bitter  for  some  time. 
The  economic  boycott  of  Jewish  trade  that  has  been 
preached  for  the  last  several  years  has  awakened,  among 
the  different  groups  of  the  Polish  population,  and  par- 
ticularly among  the  small  business  men,  unwholesome 
race  hatred  and  religious  hostility.  In  a  struggle  of 
such  a  nature,  no  weapon  is  considered  too  mean,  and 
there  was  no  necessity  for  special  instructions  from 
party  leaders,  neither  did  it  require  a  special  agitation 
by  the  public  press.  Both  of  these  have,  however,  been 
brought  into  play  here  and  there,  where  the  resentment 
which  had  gradually  grown  up  as  yet  found  expression 
in  whispered  calumnies  against  the  Jews. 

Another  factor  which  contributed  to  the  success  of 
the  slander  consisted  in  those  special  usages  of  the  Jew- 
ish inhabitants  of  Poland  which  make  them  appear  en- 
tirely unlike  their  Polish  country  fellow  men,  as  well 
as  unlike  their  own  brethren  in  the  Russian  provinces 
proper.  The  Polish  Jews  have  conserved  their  medieval 
apparel;  they  speak  neither  Polish  nor  Russian*,  but 
Yiddish,  a  language  that  was  created  some  centuries  ago 
from  German  roots  with  an  admixture  of  Hebrew  and 
Slavonic  words. 


Ignorance  of  Russian  Language 

Such  conditions  brought  about  a  natural  hostility  be- 
tween the  Jewish  population  and  the  incoming  Russian 
troops,  to  many  of  whom  this  was,  perhaps,  the  first 
sight  of  a  people  of  such  a  character.  It  was  almost 
inevitable  that  suspicion  should  grow  up  in  the  ranks  of 
the  army  against  a  people  speaking  a  language  that 
closely  resembles  German,  and  that  the  enemy  could 
understand,  while  the  army  of  their  own  country,  the 
Russian  soldiers,  could  not.  Suspicion  gave  rise  to  vio- 
lence, and  the  terror-stricken  Jews  naturally  sought  to 
hide  or  escape  before  the  approach  of  armed  men,  who 
were  in  a  hostile  frame  of  mind,  and  who  could  not  even 

*  Ignorance  of  Russian  language  is  caused  by  the  educational  restric- 
which  the  Jews  are  submitted.    See  page  32. 


50 


/ 


understand  the  explanations  of  a  frightened  people. 
This,  in  turn,  fomented  distrust  and  created  a  preju- 
diced atmosphere  ready  to  give  credence  to  any  ab- 
surdity whatsoever.  Tales  which  would  have  been 
considered  as  impossibilities  with  respect  to  any  one 
else,  became  likely  when  told  about  these  swarthy, 
strangely  dressed  people,  who  were  trying  to  escape,  and 
who  could  not  speak,  or  who  spoke  a  language  which 
the  enemy  could  understand,  but  we,  Russians,  could 
not. 

Military  Requisitions  by  Invading  Germans  Cause 
Scarcity  for  Russian  Armies  Coming  After 

These  circumstances  were,  of  course,  seized  upon  by 
the  hostile  elements  of  the  local  population.  To  this 
should  be  added,  as  a  third  cause,  the  very  nature  of 
the  military  activities  in  Poland  during  the  first  few 
weeks  of  the  war.  It  happened  that  in  many  localities 
the  Germans  appeared  on  the  ground  before  our  forces. 
Our  troops,  pushing  out  the  Germans,  arrived  in  these 
towns  only  after  the  inhabitants  had  been  stripped  of 
practically  everything  by  German  military  requisitions 
and  plunderings.  The  demands  of  our  troops  addressed 
to  the  Jews,  the  only  shopkeepers  in  these  localities, 
could  not  be  satisfied.  The  shops  were  sacked  and 
closed  down.  But  this  sufficed  for  the  allegation  that 
the  Jews  had  voluntarily  delivered  everything  to  the 
Germans,  and  were  hiding  everything  from  our  troops. 
It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  impression  made  upon  our 
troops  by  such  tales,  circulated  by  the  hostile  element 
of  the  local  population,  more  akin  to  the  Russian  troops 
both  in  culture  and  language  than  the  Jews.  Especially 
fatal  this  impression  must  have  been  in  localities  where 
there  was  not  one  Jew  speaking  sufficient  Russian  to 
explain  the  matter. 

Fertile  Ground  for  Stories  and  Fables 

Is  it  surprising  that  in  such  an  atmosphere  there 
grew  up  fables  of  gold  being  sent  in  coffins  to  the 


5] 


Germans;  of  a  Jew  on  a  white  horse  passing  in  front 
of  our  troops  giving  signals;  of  windmills  brought  into 
movement  by  human  hands,  of  telephones  laid  for 
tens  of  miles  by  means  of  thick  wires  and  cords. 
Particularly  characteristic  are  the  cases  where  the 
Jews  were  accused  of  maintaining  telephone  communi- 
cation with  the  enemy.  These  accusations  have,  more 
than  once,  caused  death  punishment  to  be  inflicted  on 
the  very  poorest,  and,  as  far  as  external  marks  of  cul- 
ture are  considered,  the  most  backward  elements  of  the 
Jewish  population— namely,  the  so-called  attendants  of 
the  synagogue.  These  accusations  grew  up  in  conse- 
quence of  an  old  Jewish  rite,  not  known  to  the  prose- 
cutors. According  to  this  rite,  the  synagogues  of  small 
localities  must  have  a  long  wire  or  cord  in  order  to 
enclose  the  Jewish  settlement  for  the  Sabbath.  One  such 
case  was  related  by  the  member  of  the  first  Duma,  Z.  G. 
Frankel.  He  succeeded  in  saving  a  man  who  was  being 
led  to  trial  and  execution,  and  who,  as  his  accuser  said, 
was  caught  "with  the  goods."  Owing  to  the  energetic 
representations  made  by  Frankel,  on  the  basis  of  infor- 
mation from  an  enemy-Jew,  who  knew  of  the  rite,  and 
after  an  inquiry  among  the  local  policemen,  it  was  shown 
that  this  rite  is  really  kept,  and  "the  goods,"  i.  e.,  the 
long,  thick  wire,  is  weekly  spread  on  Fridays  by  the 
aged  attendant  of  the  synagogue. 

Prominent  among  the  conditions  which  contributed  to 
the  circulation  of  slander  were  the  relations  between 
our  troops  and  the  Jewish  population  of  Galicia  [an 
Austrian  possession],  after  it  was  occupied  by  our  army. 
The  tragedy  of  the  situation  consisted  in  the  fact  that 
the  appearance,  the  language  and  the  usages  of  the 
Galician  Jews  resemble  very  much,  and  in  several  re- 
spects are  entirely  the  same  as,  those  of  the  Polish  Jews. 
In  consequence,  everything  that  our  army  had  to  endure 
from  the  Jewish  population  of  Austrian  Galicia  was 
charged  to  the  account  of  the  Jewish  population  of 
Russian  Poland. 


52 


Natural  Hostlity  of  Austrian  Jews  Charged  to  Russian 
Jewry 

That  the  Jewish  population  of  Austria,  including  thai 
of  Galicia,  was  not  favorably  disposed  towards  Russia 
is  an  indubitable  fact,  This  hostility,  one  might  think, 
would  become  milder  in  time,  in  view  of  the  undoubted 
advantages,  which  the  annexation  of  Galicia  to  our 
country  would  bring  to  the  Galician  Jews,  but  at  that 
time  the  attitude  was  only  natural.  It  is  explained  not 
only  by  the  loyalty  of  the  Galician  Jews,  as  subjects  of 
Austria,  to  their  duty  as  citizens,  but  also  by  their  Hear 
of  being  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  their  present 
full  rights  of  citizenship  when  brought  under  Russian 
allegiance  and  leveled  in  their  rights  with  the  rest  of 
the  Russian  Jews.  Of  course  there  cannot  be  the  least 
doubt  that  the  rumors,  circulated  by  the  reactionaries, 
to  the  effect  that  the  Galician  Jews  would  not  only  be 
deprived  of  their  political  and  civil  rights,  but  that  their 
landed  property  would  be  confiscated,  strengthened  this 
hostile  sentiment  and  the  desire  to  serve  their  own  army 
and  their  own  government  to  the  injury  of  ours.* 

Over  400,000  Jews  in  the  Russian  Army 

Fed  from  all  the  enumerated  sources,  the  slander 
against  the  Jews  was,  however,  at  the  beginning,  cir- 
culated by  means  which  seemingly  it  was  yet  possible 
to  combat.  It  seemed  improbable  that  the  highest  Com- 
manding Persons  in  the  Army  should  not  understand 
the  evil  this  worked  upon  the  army  itself,  for  there  were 
about  300,000  or  400,000  Jews  in  the  Russian  ranks,  f 
It  was  therefore  reasonable  to  hope  that  appeals  ad- 
dressed by  prominent  Jewish  members  of  the  community 
and  members  of  the  Duma  to  the  military  and  civil 
authorities  would  bring  the  desired  result,  and  that 
words  of  explanation  and  of  assurance  would  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  army.  It  is  a  pity  that  in  this  hope  we 
were  disappointed. 

*  See  below,  page  75. 

t  Later  this  number  rose  to  500,000  according  to  the  most  moderate 
estimates. 


53 


Commanding  Officers  Disseminate  Slanders 

On  the  contrary,  the  commanding  officers,  who 
are  drawn  from  among  the  highest  and  most  re- 
sponsible circles— men  who,  as  members  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  United  Nobility,  were  the  initiators  and 
authors  of  the  the  legislative  project  barring  Jews  from 
the  army— these  commanding  officers  allowed  themselves 
to  be  influenced  by  the  legend  of  wholesale  Jewish 
treason,  and  began  energetically  to  disseminate  and 
strengthen  this  belief  in  the  ranks  of  the  army. 


ANTI-JEWISH  MILITARY  ORDERS 

Forbidding  Jews  to  Remain  in  War  Zone 

About  the  middle  of  January,  1915,  there  was  posted 
in  all  the  streets  and  squares  of  the  city  of  Lemberg  and 
other  Galician  cities  a  proclamation  reading  as  follows : 

"The  progress  of  the  present  war  has  revealed  an  open 
hostility  to  us  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  population  of 
Poland,  Galicia*  and  Bukowina." 

Here  the  population  of  Poland  is  already  being  con- 
sidered by  the  authorities  from  the  same  point  of  view 
as  the  Jews  of  Galicia  and  Bukowina  (Austrian  posses- 
sions).   The  proclamation  goes  on  to  say: 


Two  Hostages  to  be  Hanged  for  Every  One  Found 
Guilty 

"To  rid  our  troops  from  espionage,  which  the  Jews  are 
practising,  all  over  the  front,  the  Commander-in-Chief  has 
torbidden  them  to  remain  in  the  zone  of  war  and  .  .  . 
in  order  to  detect  the  Jewish  spies,  has  given  orders  for 
taking  hostages  who  will  be  punished  (by  being  hanged). 
.  .  .  For  every  Jewish  spy  that  shall  be  caught,  two 
hostages  will  be  responsible." 


fslUV]lnbflSr7'°'The  accusation  about  the  prevalence  of 
espionage  among  the  Galician  Jews  see  speech  in  the  Duma,  page  86. 


54 


Inciting  Proclamation  Telegraphed  to  All 
Commanders-in-Chief 

This  document  was  subsequently  telegraphed  to  all 
the  commanders-in-chief  of  the  military  districts  of  the 
zone ^ of  war  and  of  adjoining  localities.  There  is  in  our 
possession  a  copy  Of  the  circular  despatched  to  the 
Chiefs  of  the  Districts  of  the  Province  of  Kholm  and 
to  the  Chief  of  Police  of  the  city  of  Kholm.  The  circu- 
lar repeats  almost  to  the  letter  the  above  quoted  procla- 
mation, making,  however,  the  following  changes  and 
additions : 

Expulsion  From  Zone  of  War  and  Adjoining 
Localities 

"The  Supreme  Commander-in-Chief  is  pleased  to  order 
the  respective  commanders,  beginning  with  that  of  Buko- 
wina,  to  expell  the  Jews  immediately  after  the  retreat  of 
the  enemy  and  to  take  hostages  from  among  the  most 
wealthy  or  those  occupying  a  communal  or  other  public 
office.  In  fulfilment  of  this  command,  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  has  ordered  the  removal  of  the  Jews  into  the  interior 
of  Russia,  into  districts  no  nearer  than  200  versts  (120 
miles)  from  any  of  the  Staffs  of  Armies,  and  to  prohibit 
Jews  from  entering  the  zone  of  expulsion." 

The  two  above-quoted  documents  were  preceded,  be- 
ginning with  September,  by  a  series  of  sporadic  meas- 
ures of  the  same  kind,  undertaken  by  individual  com- 
manders in  isolated  districts.  Wholesale  expulsion  of 
the  Jews,  and  of  the  Jews  only,  are  followed  in  turn  by 
proclamations  and  orders,  in  which  there  is  openly  given 
expression  to  the  opinion  of  the  commanders  that  the 
Jews  are  to  be  considered  as  spies. 

Sporadic   Expulsions   Preceding   Summary  Military 
Orders 

As  early  as  August  11,  1914 — i.  e.,  ten  days  after  the 
declaration  of  war — the  commandant  of  the  village  of 
Mishenk,  in  the  province  of  Lomzha,  ordered  all  the 
Jews  (2,000  people  in  all)  immediately  to  leave  the 
village.   A  few  days  later  the  Governor  of  Lomzha  per- 


55 


mitted  them  to  return,  but  the  commandant  would  not 
allow  them  to  come  back.    Only  nine  men  were  given 
permission  to  enter  the  village  in  order  to  get  the  be- 
longings of  the  expelled.    About  the  middle  of  August, 
1914,  the  entire  Jewish  population  of  Yanovets,  in  the 
Province  of  Radom,  was  expelled.    The  Jewish  popula- 
tion of  the  village  of  Rika,  in  the  Province  of  Radom, 
was  expelled  twice.    On  October  6,  1914,  by  the  order 
of  the  commandant  of  the  fortress  of  Ivangorod,  the 
Jewish  population  of  Nova  Alexandria,  Province  of 
Lublin,  was  expelled  in  twenty-four  hours.     In  the 
lown  of  Prena,  Province  of  Lublin,  the  entire  Jewish 
population  was  expelled  on  the  11th  of  October.  In 
Pyassenno,  province  of  Warsaw,  the  Jews  were  expelled. 
In  Gorodziansk,  province  of  Warsaw,  the  Jews  were 
ordered  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  evacuate 
the  city  before  night;  altogether  4,000  inhabitants  were 
expelled,  including  300  families  of  reservists.    In  the 
middle  of  December  they  were  allowed  to  return,  but 
on  January  14,  1915,  came  an  order  to  have  them  ex- 
pelled in  two  days.    In  the  town  of  Kernzya  all  the 
population,  Jewish  and  Polish  as  well,  evacuated  the 
place  j  after  two  or  three  days  the  Poles  came  back ;  the 
Jews,  however,  were  not  permitted  to  return.    On  the 
8th  of  December,  200  Jews,  of  the  town  of  Ilovo,  prov- 
ince of  Warsaw,  were  arrested.   On  January  9,  170  were 
discharged,  but  thirty  were  retained  as  hostages.  On 
February  9,  the  hostages  were  released,  but  the  popula- 
tion received  orders  to  evacuate  the  city  by  4  P.  M. 

Jews  Declared  Allies  of  Enemies  of  Russia 

Oil  the  7th  of  December,  1914,  an  order  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief was  published,  declaring  the  Russian 
Jews  to  be  allies  of  the  enemies  of  Russia,  on  the  ground 
of  articles  in  the  German  newspapers : 

statine^L^ThTr  newspaPers  th*™  have  appeared  articles, 

aUMul  all U     T^thf S- ^  in  the  Russi^  Jews 
!f;huia  li  s'    In  th?  vlctory  of  the  Germans,  the  Jews 
bee  their  deliverance  from  the  yoke  of  the  Czar  anrt  nl 


56 


the  harmful  activities  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  population 
the  Commander-in-Chief  has  ordered  that  hostages  be  taken 
from  the  Jews  as  soon  as  inhabited  settlements  are  occu 
pied,  and  that  at  the  same  time  the  inhabitants  should  be 
warned  that  in  case  of  treachery,  not  only  for  the  period 
of  occupation  of  the  place  by  our  troops,  but  even  after  il 
was  evacuated  by  them,  the  hostages  will  be  executed 
Recorded:  Telegram  of  General  Oranovskv  No  343  Signed 
by  the  Commander  of  the  Fortified  Region,  General  Bobir." 

Jews  Barred  From  Employment  in  Cosumers' 
Associations  of  Army  Officers 

On  the  17th  of  December  twelve  hostages  were  taken 
from  the  Jewish  population  of  Lokhachevsk;  on  the  6th 
of  January,  1915,  the  entire  Jewish  population  of  Lok 
hachevsk  was  expelled.  After  that,  two  orders  of  the 
31st  of  December,  1914,  and  the  17th  of  Janury,  1915, 
follow  in  chronological  succession,  which  reveal  the  sen- 
timent of  the  authorities  with  regard  to  the  Jews  in  gen 
eral,  outside  of  any  question  of  treachery.  The  first, 
Order  of  the  Day  of  the  Army  on  the  South  Western 
Front,  No.  343,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  certain 
Consumers'  and  Economy  Associations  of  Army  Officers 
in  the  war  area  employ  Jewish  agents. 

Slander  of  Jewish  Physicians 

The  other  Order  of  the  Day  deals  with  the  old  and 
tried  expedient  of  accusing  the  Jews  of  revolutionary 
agitation : 

"In  view  of  the  propaganda  against  the  government  un- 
dertaken by  Jewish  physicians  and  assistants  in  the  sani- 
tary trains  there  appears  to  be  an  extreme  necessity  for  the 
enactment  of  measures  which  should  not  only  contribute 
to  the  suppression  of  the  revolutionary  propaganda,  but 
which  should  also  cut  at  the  root  the  very  possibility  of 
the  Jewish  physicians  and  sanitarians  in  engaging  in  revo- 
lutionary propaganda.  .  .  ." 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1915,  the  Commander  of  the 
town  of  Zihirardov  ordered  the  local  Jews,  to  the  number 
of  3,000,  to  leave  the  place  by  five  P.  M.  of  the  same 
day.  In  Viskidi,  the  guards  made  known  an  order  of 
the  military  authorities  to  have  all  Jews  expelled  in 
twelve  hours.    .    .    .    The  same  took  place  in  Prushkov. 


57 


Expulsion  of  Jews  and  Suspicious  Persons  from 
Plotsk 


On  February  8  or  9,  the  Military  Commander,  General 
Ruzsky,  despatched  two  telegrams  to  the  Governor  of 
the  province  of  Plotsk.  The  first  read:  "Remove  all 
Jews  of  the  province  of  Plotsk."  The  second  telegram 
answered  an  inquiry  by  the  governors  as  to  the  ways  in 
which  the  order  should  be  carried  out,  and  read:  "There 
are  to  be  removed  immediately  all  Jews  and  suspicious 
persons  from  localities  that  are  situated  near  the  line 
of  the  front  and  in  the  region  where  the  troops  are 
concentrated.  The  purpose  of  the  order  is  to  prevent 
espionage.    .    .    . " 

Severer  Penalties  for  Jews  Than  for  Other 
Nationalities 

On  the  12th  of  April,  1915,  General  Evert  issued 
special  regulations  which  impose  severer  penalties  upon 
Jews  than  upon  non-Jews  for  the  commitment  of  the 
same  crimes.  In  view  of  the  extreme  peculiarity  of 
these  regulations,  they  are  quoted  literally :  * 

"Compulsory  regulations.  In  accordance  with  section  77 
article  415  of  the  administration  of  field  troops  in  time  of 
!,i  re'  declared  that  in  view  of  the  lately  increasing 
number  of  cases  of  swindles  and  frauds  committed  by  Jews 

inlJiv  ?<?\Z  TCUpiedT  by  the  army'  and  intended  to  cause 
injury  to  the  troops,  I  increase  temporarily  the  severity  of 

maendethatefn  'fit  ^  by,  the  IaW  f°r  frauds>  an  "com! 
mand  that  in  the  future,  for  any  form  of  conversion  of 

X  Jel°IlgmS\0l  an0ther'  consisting  of  money  or  movable 

he&  orf°pgh  HaUd'-  aS  dealt  With  in  articl*s  173  276  of 
the  Code  of  Penalties  imposed  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace 
m  those  cases  where  the  accused  are  Jews  and  the  pkdn- 
tiffs,  military  companies  or  individual  soldiers  there  be 
imposed  upon  those  guilty  of  committing  frauds  or  swindles 
penalties  prescribed  by  article  1666  of  the  CriminiaT On Jp 
regardless  of  the  amount  that  was  thus  embeSed  ' 

"The  Commander  of  the  Army, 

"General  of  Infantry, 
  "evert." 

*  See  also  page  16. 


58 


Jewish  Relief  Work  Hampered 

On  the  9th  of  May,  the  governor  of  the  province  of 
Radom  issued  special  regulations  prohibiting  the  inde- 
pendent activities  of  the  Jewish  Charity  Organizations 
in  the  region  occupied  by  the  army. 

Russian  Soldiers  Incited  Against  Their  Comrades  in 

Arms 

Finally,  on  the  10th  of  May,  an  Order  of  the  Day  was 
issued  which  aimed  to  arouse  suspicion,  this  time  not 
only  against  the  peaceful  population  alone,  but  also 
against  Jews  in  the  ranks  of  the  army,  and  against 
whom,  up  to  that  time,  no  complaints  whatsoever  were 
ever  received  from  any  part  of  the  army  whatever.  And 
this  Order  of  the  Day  was  not  issued  by  any  of  the 
military  divisions,  nor  by  an  individual  commander, 
but  by  the  General  Staff.  (Order  of  the  General 
Staff  No.  1193  under  date  of  April  27,  May  10, 
1915).  It  was  composed  at  a  time  when  the  Rus- 
sian nation  was  overcome  by  grave  alarm,  when 
on  the  one  hand  the  enemy  was  gaining  ground  in  the 
Baltic  provinces,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  attack  in 
Galicia  by  the  Germans  was  started.  In  those  terrible 
days  the  General  Staff  decided  to  collect  statistics  about 
the  conduct  of  the  Jewish  soldiers.  But  the  desired 
character  of  the  information  looked  for  was  determined 
in  advance  by  the  Order  of  the  Day.  Information  was 
demanded  with  regard  to  four  questions;  in  this  number 
the  following  two  are  included : 

3.  "The  circumstances  of  the  surrender  of  Jewish 
privates  as  prisoners  of  war,"  and  4.  "Cases  of  treason 
against  duty  and  oath." 

Such  is  the  list  of  Order  of  the  Day,  alternating  with 
Circulars  to  the  same  effect,  for  the  first  eight  or  nine 
months  of  the  duration  of  the  war.* 

There  is  no  necessity  to  describe  the  horrors  of  a 
rapid  expulsion  in  winter  of  a  people  en  masse  from 

*  See  also  order  of  General  Jakowlov  from  a  later  date,  page  71. 


59 


their  homes.  Detailed  data  of  these  horrors  were  col- 
lected by  the  Jewish  social  and  charitable  organizations 
in  Warsaw  and  Poland,  to  whose  lot  has  fallen  the  care 
of  the  ruined  fugitives.  In  Warsaw  alone,  according  to 
statistics  of  the  Petrograd  Committee  for  the  aid  of  war. 
sufferers  at  hand  a  month  ago,  there  were  crowded  about 
80,000  refugees  and  expelled;  of  this  number  40,000 
belonged  to  those  who  were  expelled  by  order  of  the 
authorities.  All  these  people  were  supported  from  the 
funds  of  Jewish  charity.  Forty  thousand  of  these 
refugees  were  getting  ten  copecks  (five  cents)  a  day  per 
capita  from  the  Petrograd  Jewish  Committee,  and  the 
rest  were  supported  from  local  Jewish  resources. 

Hostages 

It  is  of  particular  importance  to  enumerate  the  hos- 
tages taken  from  the  Jewish  population  in  various  locali- 
ties.  The  very  idea  that  a  State  may  take  hostages  from 
its  own  subjects  is  utterly  repugnant.   Being  a  survival 
of  the  obsolete  idea  of  communal  responsibility,  its  full 
burden  falls  upon  the  best  and  most  respectable  persons 
of  the  given  group.   Not  only  were  hostages  taken  from 
among  those  who  had  the  best  standing  in  the  Jewish 
community,  but  at  times  hostages  were  recruited  from 
persons  who  had,  during  the  war,  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  energetic  and  self-denying  activities  for 
our  army.     It  would  suffice  to  mention  that  among 
others  a  certain  Mr.  Gokhberg  was  taken  as  hostage  in 
the  town  of  Konsk.    This  was  the  same  Gokhberg  of 
whom  a  Duma  member  of  our  party,  Nekrassov,  had 
spoken,  as  having  proven  of  inestimable  service  to  the 
Union  of  Zemstvos.   Nekrassov  had  recommended  Gokh- 
berg to  the  Headquarters  of  the  Zemstvo  Unions  for 
some  mark  of  distinction,  but  confirmation  of  the  honor 
had  not  arrived  from  Moscow  when  Nekrassov  heard 
that  Gokhberg  was  taken  as  hostage  and  despatched  to 
the  province  of  Poltava.   The  party  of  sureties  in  which 
Gokhberg  was  included  consisted  of  43  persons  The 
appeals  of  the  relatives,  as  well  as  of  the  Jewish  mem- 


bers  of  the  Duma,  both  to  the  local  and  central  authori- 
ties, were  in  vain;  the  Minister  of  Internal  Affairs  pro- 
testing that  this  question  was  outside  of  the  limits  of 
his  authority. 

The  first  information  covering  the  taking  of  hostages 
refers  to  the  months  of  September,  October  and  Novem- 
ber, 1914.  At  this  early  time  some  scores  of  Jews  were 
taken  as  hostages  in  Prushkov.  At  the  same  time  hos- 
tages were  taken  from  Tsikhanov,  the  rabbi  and  two 
Jews;  in  Zhuromnin,  the  rabbi  and  ten  Jews;  and  in 
Brezine,  seven  Jews  and  two  Germans.  All  these 
hostages  were  held  arrested  for  some  time  and  then 
released.  In  some  places  the  complement  of  hostages 
was  changed  daily,  as  at  Brezine. 

Odd  Bargaining 

On  the  17th  of  December  twelve  hostages  were  taken 
in  the  town  of  Sokhachev;  these  being  changed  daily 
thereafter.  On  the  26th  of  January  three  hostages  were 
executed,  the  cause  of  the  execution  being  unknown. 
In  Radom  two  hostages  were  at  first  taken — a  manufac 
turer  and  a  contractor.  The  Governor-General,  how- 
ever, discharged  them,  for  the  arrest  of  the  manufac- 
turer brought  about  the  suspension  of  work  in  factories 
employing  numerous  workmen;  and  after  the  arrest  of 
the  contractor,  the  work  on  government  orders  was 
stopped.  Instead  of  the  men  released,  three  old  men, 
sixty  years  and  over,  were  arrested. 

The  taking  of  hostages  was  accompanied  in  some 
places  by  an  odd  kind  of  bargaining.  At  first  the  rich- 
est people  were  designated  as  hostages;  these  were  then 
discharged  for  a  certain  ransom,  and  in  their  stead  a 
second  levy  was  designated;  this  in  turn  was  discharged 
for  a  ransom,  and  a  third  draft  designated. 

Acts  of  Jewish  Heroism  Suppressed  by  Russian 
Censorship 

It  is  necessary  to  dwell  on  all  these  facts  with  some 
detail,  since  the  censorship  all  this  time  did  not  permit 


61 


U*  press  to  publish  fact,  The .  ~ 
towards  the  Jews  deserves  particular  ^ 
the  first  day  of  war  the  censors  were  1 
the  press  columns  everything  that  bore  evidence  o  Jew 
ish  gallantry,  of  awards  of  insignia  of  df  ^  ^ 
Jews  of  the  promotion  of  Jews  to  the  rank  of  ensign, 
anTso on  The  editorial  offices  of  progressive  news- 
and  so  on.  Birzheviya  Viedomosty,  and 

papers  like  Bech,  Dyen,  tsirznevuju 
Petrogradsky  Kuryer,  possessed  long  columns  of  such 
news  cancelled  by  the  censors. 

"New  Voskhod"  Suspended  for  Collecting  Materials 
on  "The  War  and  the  Jews 

In  Bech,  for  instance,  from  a  short  paragraph,  "The 
Jewish  non-commissioned  officer  B.  has  accomplished 
such  an  exploit,"  one  word  only,  the  word  Jewish, 
was  cancelled  by  the  censor.   In  the  Petrogradsky  Kur- 
yer the  pictures  of  Chevaliers  of  the  Cross  of  St.  George 
were  suppressed  by  the  censor.  But  the  lot  of  the  Jewish 
journal  New  Voskhod  was  veritable  martyrdom.  The 
censorship  either  entirely  suppressed  the  lists  of  Jews 
who  had  distinguished  themselves  at  the  front,  or  after 
protests  of  and  barter  with  the  editor,  permitted  him 
to  publish  parts  of  the  lists,  while  the  rest  was  being 
suppressed.    In  some  cases  the  censorship  finally  per- 
mitted the  designation  of  Chevaliers  of  the  Cross  of  St. 
George  by  initials  only.    When,  however,  the  journal 
had  worked  out  a  plan  to  publish,  as  a  premium  to 
subscribers,  a  book  entitled  "The  War  and  the  Jews," 
and  started  to  collect  materials  for  it,  the  censorship, 
for  this  attempt,  suppressed  the  journal. 

While  Children  Fight,  Their  Parents  Treated  as 
Outlaws 

In  the  early  part  of  April,  1915,  an  order  by  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Fortress  of  Viborg  became  known  in 
Petrograd.  The  order  prohibited  the  settlement  of  Jews 
on  the  seashore  of  the  Gulf  of  Finnland.    Presently  in 


62 


the  newspapers  appeared  a  list  of  localities  included  in 
the  prohibited  zone.  By  this  order  the  wholesale  accu- 
sation of  treason  was  thrown  in  the  face  of  the  Jews 
not  only  of  Poland,  Galicia  and  Bukowina,  but  of  all 
the  Jews  inhabiting  the  Russian  Empire.  The  Jewish 
communities  addressed  a  statement  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  concerning  this  case.  Some  extracts  from  this 
document  deserve  our  attention  because  they  illustrate 
the  frame  of  mind  of  the  J ewish  people : 

"The  entire  Jewish  people  would  eject,  with  disdain  and 
indignation,  from  their  midst  those  outrageous  and  base 
criminals  who,  having  forgotten  their  duty  and  conscience 
at  a  time  of  the  nation's  greatest  trial,  would  by  design  or 
in  fact  violate  their  sacred  duty  of  loyalty  to  the  fatherland. 
Never  in  the  space  of  centuries,  however  distressing  the 
persecution  which  the  Jews  have  had  to  suffer  from  preju- 
dice, has  there  been  a  country  wherein  the  Jews  have  lived 
as  subjects  that  would  have  pronounced  the  whole  of  these, 
its  Jewish  subjects,  to  be  traitors  to  their  fatherland.  For 
the  first  time  such  an  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  authorities 
towards  the  Jews  is  manifested  nowadays.  At  a  time  when 
our  children  are  fighting  in  the  ranks  of  the  gallant  Rus- 
sian army  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  Russia,  we,  their 
parents,  are  subjected  to  a  common  responsibility  on  a  level 
with  outlaws,  and  are  subjected  to  penalties  for  abominable 
deeds  which  are  aimed  at  the  betrayal  of  our  own  children." 

The  address  concludes : 

"We  dare  address  your  Imperial  Highness  in  the  hope 
that  our  humiliation  be  not  enforced  any  longer;  that  we 
be  relieved  from  the  stigma  of  outcasts;  that  we  be  allowed 
through  right  as  loyal  sons  of  the  fatherland  to  exert  all 
our  efforts  to  combat  our  common  enemy." 

Expulsion  From  Kovno  and  Kurland 

To.  this  address  no  answer  was  received. 

Finally,  with  the  appearance  of  the  enemy  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  provinces  of  Kovno  and  Kurland 
came  the  Orders  of  the  Day  of  May  10  and  11  for  the 
expulsion  of  all  Jews  from  many  cities  and  towns  of 
the  provinces  of  Kurland,  and  in  the  middle  of  May 
the  order  for  the  expulsion  came  from  the  province  of 
Kovno.  The  expulsion  of  Jews  from  the  affected  districts 
of  the  province  of  Kovno  embraced  120,000  people,  and 


63 


from  the  province  of  Grodno,  30,000,  or  190,000  people 
in  all  The  time  given  for  removal  varied  from  24 
hours," as  in  Kukyin  and  in  Tsabelnya;  on  occasions  even 
less  than  24  hours  were  allowed.  The  exiles  were  di- 
rected to  localities  on  the  left  shores  of  the  Dnieper,  m 
the  governments  of  Yekaterinoslav  and  Chernigov  a 
region  entirely  foreign  to  them.  The  tragedy  of  this 
eompulsory  migration  is  not  yet  at  an  end.  At  the 
present  moment  there  are  yet  tens  or  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  people  adrift  in  cattle  cars,  far  from  their 
native  provinces,  deprived  of  shelter,  living  on  charity. 
For  weeks  they  are  kept  in  cars  on  the  side  tracks. 
The  local  population  hiss  at  them  with  cries  of  spy 
and  -treacherous  Jews."  The  people  can  find  no  other 
explanation  for  this  scene. 

Deportation  of  Crippled,  Insane  and  Wounded 
Soldiers 

The  orders  of  expulsion  affected  all  Jews  with  no 
exceptions  whatever.  There  were  deported  wounded 
soldiers  who  had  just  returned  from  the  battle  front; 
the  wives,  children  and  parents  of  those  fighting  at  the 
front ;  aged  men,  some  80  years  old,  and  new-born  babes. 
The  writer,  Korobka,  and  the  member  of  the  Duma, 
Kerensky,  who  themselves  visited  the  localities  where 
expulsions  have  been  taking  place,  relate  that  they  saw 
on  the  way  entire  asylums  of  deported  helpless  cripples 
and  insane,  and  sheltering  houses  for  infants  and  or- 
phans banished  en  masse.  According  to  the  evidence 
of  eye-witnesses,  regions  have  been  entirely  depopulated. 
Inasmuch  as  the  Jews  have  for  a  time  been  the  principal 
factors  in  the  commercial  and  industrial  life  of  these 
localities,  business  had  stagnated.  Such  a  collapse  of 
economic  activities  is  particularly  dangerous  at  a  time 
\yhen  all  efforts  should  be  centralized  upon  the  sole 
task,  the  complete  mobilization  of  the  nation's  resources. 
Economic  disorganization  in  those  localities  has  reached 
a  point  where  articles  of  prime  necessity  are  lacking. 


Q4 


in  some  localities  the  railway  employees,  uiiable  to  get 
provisions,  were  compelled  to  apply  for  food  to  the 
Camps  of  the  Red  Cross. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  on  the  evil  effect  the  process 
of  expulsion  is  exerting  on  the  localities  whereto  the 
multitudes  of  starving,  pauperized,  shelterless  people 
are  directed.  The  distressed  inhabitants  of  these  towns 
and  cities  must  now  shelter  and  provide  for  the  new- 
comers. The  local  economic  life,  which  is  not  adapted 
to  such  radical  changes,  suffers  complete  disorganization. 
Disease  follow  on  the  heels  of  the  fugitives. 

The  Kuzhi  Slander 

Preceding  the  acts  of  expulsion  from  the  provinces 
of  Kovno  and  Kurland,  another  act  of  the  Government, 
the  consequences  of  which  may  prove  more  fatal  than 
the  policy  of  eviction  itself,  must  be  here  recorded. 

On  the  18th  of  May  the  following  report  appeared  in 
the  official  military  organ,  Nash  Viestnik: 

"On  the  night  of  May  10-11,  an  attack  on  a  section  of 
one  of  our  infantry  regiments  in  bivouac  was  made  by  the 
Germans  at  Kuzhi,  a  little  to  the  northwest  of  Shavli 
(Province  of  Kurland).  This  incident  evinced  shocking 
treachery  against  our  forces  by  a  certain  part  of  the  local 
population,  particularly  the  Jews.  Prior  to  the  arrival  of 
our  detachments  in  this  hamlet,  the  Jews  had  concealed 
Germans  in  many  of  the  cellars,  and  at  a  signal  given  by 
a  shot,  they  set  Kuzhi  on  fire  from  all  sides.  Leaping  out 
from  the  cellars,  the  Germans  rushed  to  the  house  of  the 
commander  of  our  infantry  regiment.  This  regrettable 
incident  once  more  confirms  the  fundamental  requirement 
of  field  service — that  is,  the  necessity  that  utmost  attention 
should  be  given  to  guard  duty,  and  especially  at  those  im- 
portant points  that  were  formerly  held  by  the  enemy  and 
are  inhabited  mostly  by  Jews." 

Government  Spreading  Tale 

This  communication  was  reprinted  from  Nash  Viestnik 
as  a  placard,  and  pursuant  to  an  order  by  the  authori- 
ties, was  posted  on  the  streets  side  by  side  with  the  most 
important  reports  from  the  front.  The  army  got  its 
orders,  as  it  evidenced  by  the  printed  Orders  of  the 
Day,  to  bring  the  communication  to  the  attention  of  all 


65 


and  every  one,  down  to  the  very  last  private.  Editors 
of  the  provincial  press,  who  had  no  desire  to  publish 
this  communication,  were  compelled  by  the  Government 
to  do  so  under  penalty  of  administrative  punishment; 
this  was  the  case  in  Minsk,  Samara,  Rostov  on  the  Don, 
and  others.  In  some  places  the  official  held  services  in 
commemoration  of  the  escape  of  the  army  from  the 
treason  of  the  Jews;  such  was  the  case  in  Tashkent. 

The  purpose  of  these  measures  was  self-evident,  and 
it  must  be  admitted  that,  to  a  certain  degree,  it  was 
achieved.  The  wide  publicity  given  to  the  Kuzhi  inci- 
dent ivas  in  itself  clearly  intended  to  stir  the  passions 
of  the  Russian  masses  and  to  sweep  them  into  the  whirl- 
pool of  anti-Semitic  agitation  and  pogrom  hatred. 

Entire  Story  Pure  Fabrication 

We  take  particular  interest  in  establishing  the  fact 
that  the  entire  communication  as  a  whole  concerning 
Kuzhi  is  a  lie ;  that  the  Government  had  knowledge  of  its 
being  a  lie,  but  that  the  Government  has  no  desire  to 
publish  the  facts  in  its  possession. 

As  to  what  had  happened  to  Kuzhi,  an  investigation 
was  made  by  the  member  of  the  Duma,  Kerensky ;  about 
this  same  incident  an  inquiry  was  made  among  the 
inhabitants  of  Kuzhi  by  the  member  of  the  Duma,  Freed- 
man.  On  the  evidence  of  the  minutes  of  the  inquiry 
made  by  Freedman  and  of  the  reports  of  Kerensky,*  the 
facts  in  the  case  are  as  follows: 

"Kuzhi  is  a  small  village  inhabited  almost  exclusively 
by  Lithuanians.  Out  of  forty  houses,  only  three  are 
Jewish.  Altogether  there  were  six  Jewish  families  in 
Kuzhi  As  to  the  'many  cellars'  reported  in  the  official 
communication,  these  are  the  facts :  There  are  five  small 
cellars  in  the  village,  and  of  these  only  two  are  in  Jewish 
houses.  Of  the  five  cellars,  the  two  largest  have  a  length 
of  from  four  to  five  yards,  and  a  width  of  about  three 
yards;  the  height  is  less  than  human  stature.    In  the 


'See  also  Kercnsky's  speech  in  the  Duma,  page  76. 


middle  of  April,  Kuzhi  was  occupied  by  the  enemy. 
Jewish  and  Christian  inhabitants  suffered  equally.  A 
iocal  shopkeeper,  Keebart,  suffered  especially ;  the  enemy 
detachments  took  away  much  of  his  goods  without  pay- 
ing for  them. 

No  Jews  in  Kuzhi  at  Time  of  Supposed  Accident 

"On  Sunday,  May  9,  between  8  and  9  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  an  enemy  reconnoitering  detachment,  consist- 
ing of  eight  men,  appeared  at  Kuzhi,  and  towards  eve- 
ning galloped  away.  Late  in  the  evening  of  the  the  same 
day  a  detachment  of  our  troops  entered  Kuzhi,  and 
these  were  stationed  in  the  houses  of  the  town.  Three 
officers  and  their  orderlies  were  quartered  in  the  house 
of  Keebart ;  in  the  yard  of  the  same  house  the  field- 
kitchen  and  the  forage  transport  ofs  the  regiment  were 
placed.  In  the  presence  of  the  local  inhabitants,  Mikhail 
Volkov  and  Rok  Stafeelavich,  Keebart  warned  the  offi- 
cers that  according  to  rumors  abroad  the  Germans  were 
only  four  versts  (3  miles)  away  from  Kuzhi.  Notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  this  information  was  confirmed 
by  Volkov  and  Stafeelovich,  the  officers  would  not  con- 
sider it  trustworthy,  and  asserted  that  the  enemy  had 
been  driven  far  away  and  would  not  come  back. 

"In  the  nights  of  May  9-10  Kuzhi  was  subjected  to 
bombardment  by  heavy  guns,  which  set  the  place  on 
fire.  When  the  fire  reached  the  house  of  Keebart,  the 
soldiers  helped  him  and  his  family  to  escape  from  the 
burning  house.  The  next  morning,  May  10,  the  greater 
part  of  the  population,  including  all  the  Jews,  without 
exception,  upon  the  advice  of  the  officers,  left  Kuzhi. 
Towards  the  evening  of  May  10  they  reached  the  village 
of  Minstoki,  where  they  spent  the  night  of  May  10-11. 
When,  according  to  the  report  in  Nash  Viestnik,  the 
enemy  detachment  was  attacking  Kuzhi  there  were  no 
Jews  in  it.  All  the  Jewish  houses  were  destroyed  by 
fire." 


67 


Death  and  Starvation  Preferred  by  Jews  to  Stigma 
on  Their  Civic  and  National  Honor 

To  conclude  the  recital  of  facts  it  is  perhaps  worth 
while  to  add  that,  according  to  information  at  hand, 
the  Government,  alarmed  at  the  results  of  the  policy 
of  expulsion,  had  submitted  to  the  military  authorities 
certain  proposals  as  to  the  return  of  the  exiled  Ihe 
military  authorities,  however,  while  admitting  that  the 
"embarrassment"  created  by  the  wholesale  expulsion  is 
proved,  would  consent  to  let  the  Jewish  population  re- 
turn to  their  homes  only  on  condition  that  they  agree 
voluntarily  to  furnish  hostages  from  among  the  rabbis 
and  other  respectable  persons.  Concerning  this  demand 
by  the  authorities,  the  member  of  the  Duma,  Freedman, 
has  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  Prime  Minister: 

"As  a  representative  from  the  Province  of  Koyno,  where- 
from  I  am  at  present  deported  together  with  the  rest  of 
the  Jewish  population,  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  forward 
the  following  information  to  Your  Excellency:  Pursuant  to 
this  last  order  of  the  corresponding  authorities,  the  exiled 
Jews  are  permitted  to  return  to  their  native  places  on  the 
condition  of  furnishing  hostages.  This  monstrous  condition 
exacted  by  the  authorities  from  their  own  subjects,  the 
Jewish  population  does  not  accept.  It  chooses  exile  and 
death  from  starvation  rather  than  accede  to  a  demand 
which  is  a  stigma  on  its  civic  and  national  honor.  The 
Jews  have  honestly  been  fulfilling  their  duty  to  the  father- 
land and  will  continue  to  fulfill  it  up  to  the  very  end.  They 
will  not  be  frightened  away  by  any  sacrifices,  and  no  per- 
secutions can  divert  them  from  the  road  of  honor.  But  no 
persecutions  can  compel  them  to  acknowledge  a  lie  by  their 
submission,  thereby  giving  evidence  that  the  base  libel  is 
a  truth. 

Such  are  the  facts.  The  conclusions  which  the  Cen- 
tral Committee  draws  from  these  facts  are  stated  in  the 
following  resolution: 


Resolution  of  Kadet's  Conference 


"After  discussing  the  elements  of  the  Jewish  problem 
in  Russia  as  manifested  the  last  ten  months,  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Kadets  has  come  to  the  following  con- 
clusions : 


Official  Anti-Semitism — Old  Weapon  of  Sinister 
Demagogism 

"The  declaration  of  war  aroused  in  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation of  Russia  a  great  outburst  of  patriotic  sentiment, 
and  a  member  of  the  Party  of  People 's  Freedom,  Freed- 
man,  gave  expression  to  this  sentiment  in  the  historical 
session  of  the  State  Duma  on  the  8th  day  of  August, 
1914,  sharing  in  full  that  enthusiasm  which  seized  upon 
the  nation  in  the  recognition  of  the  danger  threatening 
the  fatherland  and  of  the  necessity  to  devote  all  efforts 
in  order  to  triumph  over  the  enemy  of  European  peace 
and  national  independence.  This  patriotic  sentiment  of 
the  Jews,  at  a  moment  of  unique  trial  for  their  country, 
seemed  to  dispel  the  prejudices  which  have  rooted  them- 
selves in  governmental  circles  and  to  clear  the  way  for 
extending  the  same  recognition  to  the  Jews  that  obtain 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  But  such  an  issue  would 
have  deprived  the  defenders  of  the  outlived  past,  of 
their  chance  to  exploit  anti-Semitism,  as  a  tried  weapon 
of  sinister  demagogism.  And  so  we  see  how,  under  the 
direct  inspiration  of  notorious  Jew  haters,  measures  are 
undertaken  in  good  time  to  incite  the  army  and  the 
people  against  the  Jews,  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
circumstances  and  the  rides  of  war-time. 

Taking  of  Hostages  Violates  Most  Elementary 
Principles  of  Justice 

' '  Isolated  cases  of  espionage,  recorded  among  the  fron- 
tier population  of  all  nationalities,  are  generalized,  and 
given  as  a  pretext  for  the  most  incredible  fabrications 
and  sinister  legends,  and  are  ascribed  exclusively  to  the 
Jews.  The  Jewish  population  is  subjected  to  the  whole- 
sale accusation  of  treason,  and  this  slander  becomes  the 
source  of  numberless  misfortunes  for  the  Jews. 

"The  enforcement  of  the  principle  of  communal  re- 
sponsibility, a  principle  that  is  abhorrent  to  the  most 
elementary  sense  of  justice  and  has  long  disappeared 


69 


from  the  list  of  penalties  admitted  by  law,  is  being 
visited  on  Jews  only.  The  unprecedented  policy  of 
taking  hostages  from  the  citizens  of  one  s  own  country 
is  the  first  application  of  this  penalty,  all  the  more  dis- 
tressing that  it  is  being  inflicted  upon  the  foremost 
members  of  the  Jewish  community,  who  frequently  have 
proven  their  devotion  to  the  fatherland.  These  are 
compelled  to  undergo  a  regime  that  is  accorded  only  to 
criminals. 

Wholesale  Expulsions— Extension  of  Abandoned 
Principle  of  Collective  Responsibility 

-Extending  the  principle  of  collective  punishment,  its 
adherents  have  passed  on  to  the  system  of  the  wholesale 
expulsion  of  Jews  from  the  localities  which  happen  to 
fall  in  the  sphere  of  military  operations,  thus  strength- 
ening the  absurd  slander,  and  placing  an  entire  nation- 
ality in  a  degrading  position  before  its  co-citizens.  It  is 
impossible  to  describe  the  sufferings  caused  by  this 
measure  which  has  resulted  in  the  expatriation  en  masse 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  poor  Jewish  population, 
including  soldiers  wounded  in  the  war,  their  wives  and 
children,  helpless  old  men  and  the  incurable  sick. 

"At  the  same  time,  the  system  of  expulsion  has  pro- 
duced a  grave  disorganization  of  the  economic  life  in 
entire  provinces  where  the  Jews  have  played,  since  long, 
the  most  prominent  part  in  commerce  and  industry,  and 
Thereby  wrought  harm  to  the  successful  realization  of 
the  main  task,  the  complete  mobilization  of  national 
resources  behind  the  fighting  line.  It  has  also  brought 
about  grave  disturbances  in  the  life  of  those  localities 
to  which  the  Jews  were  forcibly  deported. 

Solution  of  Jewish  Question  of  Primary  Importance 
to  True  Progress  of  Russia 

"Not  only  for  the  sake  of  brotherhood  and  good  will 
among  the  nationalities  who  are  destined  to  live  within 
a  common  state ;  not  only  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  in 
the  Jewish  population  which  has  been  driven  to  despair, 


70 


hopes  of  a  brighter  future  and  that  progress  for  which 
the  Jews  are  incessantly  struggling,  but  also  for  the 
sake  of  the  realization  of  our  task  as  Russians,  to  raise 
our  dear  fatherland  to  the  level  of  a  really  civilized 
country,  we  must  make  vigorous  resistance  to  the  at- 
tempts of  the  reactionary  forces  to  break  our  connection 
with  the  army  and  people  on  the  Jewish  question — a 
connection  that  has  become  especially  strong  since  the 
beginning  of  the  present  war.  Our  opponents  desire, 
even  after  the  war,  to  exploit  the  same  poisoned  weapon 
of  blind  nationalism  they  were  formerly  exploiting. 

"It  is  our  task  to  demonstrate  to  the  masses  that  there 
is  a  desire  to  deceive  them,  to  rouse  their  worst  passions, 
and  thus  to  distract  their  attention  from  their  real  in- 
terests. We  must,  as  heretofore,  insist  and  firmly  point 
out  that  there  is  only  one  way  of  achieving  a  better 
future.  The  Jewish  problem  can  be  solved  only  in  a 
manner  demanded  by  the  fundamental  principles  of 
statesmanship — by  recognizing  the  principle  of  equal 
civil  rights  and  of  the  right  of  national  self -develop- 
ment." 


The  report  was  unanimously  approved  by  the  joint 
conference  and  the  resolution  unanimously  adopted. 


ADDENDA  TO  CHAPTER  I 

Discrimination  Against  Jews  During  Evacuation  of 
Warsaw 

On  July  7,  1915,  an  order  was  issued  by  the  Com- 
mander of  the  17th  Army  Corps,  General  of  Infantry 
Jakowlow.  The  order  states  that  it  was  promulgated  by 
the  Corps  Commander  "by  order  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief,"  to  govern  the  evacuation  of  Warsaw.  The  fol- 
lowing three  instructions  contained  in  the  order  reveal 
the  appalling  Russian  discrimination  against  the  Jews: 


71 


"L  It  is  advisable  to  persuade  the  population  to  fol- 
low the  army  on  its  retreat  from  the  evacuated  areas. 
.  "5  The  civil  population  leaving  their  residences  are 
to  be  directed  towards  Lublin,  Kholm,  Vladimir  Wol- 
insk,  Kovel,  Lutsk,  Dubna,  Kremenietz,  Lachowce. 

"7.  Refugee  Jews  are  to  be  directed  towards  the  dis- 
trict east  of  the  Volga. ' ' 

If  you  will  look  at  a  big  map  the  differentiation  here 
made  between  "the  civil  population"  and  "refugee 
Jews"  will  leap  to  the  eyes.  The  "civil  population" 
were  "to  be  directed  towards"  the  nearest  available 
points;  the  "refugee  Jews"  to  a  district  within  at  least 
something  like  a  thousand  miles  away. 

Hostages  Demanded  As  a  Condition  for  Return  of 
the  Exiles 

The  Kieff  Committee  of  Jewish  Relief  petitioned  the 
governor  of  Kovno  for  leave  to  the  Jewish  exiles  from 
the  Provine  of  Kovno  to  return  home.  The  following 
telegram  came  in  reply  to  this  petition : 

"The  Jews  deported  from  a  part  of  the  Province  of 
Kovno  beyond  the  line  Riga-Bausk-Ponyevyezh-Vilko- 
mir-Kovno  may  reside  only  beyond  that  line,  to  wit: 
in  the  Novo-Alexandrovsk  district  and  part  of  the  Vil- 
komir  district,  to  the  east  of  the  above-mentioned  line. 
Return  to  permanent  residence,  if  within  the  zone  of 
military  operations,  is  allowed  only  on  condition  that 
acceptable  hostages  be  first  furnished. 

' '  ( Signed )  Governor  Gryaznoff . ' '  * 

The  Jews  refused  to  avail  themselves  of  this  peculiar 
privilege. 

Text  of  the  Order  for  the  Expulsion  of  Jews  from 
Kowno 

The  Kowno  administration  received  the  following  or- 
der from  military  headquarters : 
"Pursuant  to  the  order  of  the  Commander-in-Chief 

•  "Voina  1  Yevrie,"  Moscow  Weekly,  1615,  No.  11 


72 


of  the  army,  each  aud  every  Jew  residing  to  the  west 
of  the  line  Kowno-Yanoff-Wilkomir-Rogoff-Ponyevyezh- 
Posvol-Salata-Bausk  shall  be  expelled.   The  points  here- 
in enumerated  are  likewise  included  within  the  territory 
from  which  the  Jews  shall  be  expelled.   With  regard  to 
the  Jews  living  within  the  territory  at  present  occupied 
by  the  German  forces,  the  said  order  shall  be  carried 
out  immediately  after  the  said  territory  is  cleared  of 
the  enemy  forces  and  upon  its  occupation  by  our  troops. 
The  expelled  Jews  must  proceed  to  one  of  the  following 
districts :  Bakhmut,  Mariumpol  and  Slavyanoserbsk,  of 
the  Province  of  Yekaterinoslav,  and  Poltava,  Gadyach, 
Zenkoff,  Kobelyaki,  Konstantinograd,  Lokhvitsa,  Lubny, 
Mirgorod,  Romny  and  Khorol  of  the  Province  of  Pol- 
tava.   The  time  limit  for  their  departure  has  been  set 
for  the  5-18  of  this  May.    After  that  date,  sojourning 
of  the  Jews  to  the  west  of  the  said  line  will  be  punished 
in  accordance  with  martial  law,  and  the  police  officials 
failing  to  take  effective  measures  for  the  enforcement 
of  the  said  order  will  be  removed  from  office  and  in- 
dicted.   Notice  of  the  foregoing  hereby  given  for  en- 
forcement, you  are  directed,  upon  the  completion  of  the 
general  expulsion  of  Jews  beyond  the  said  limit  of  the 
territory  under  your  jurisdiction,  to  report  to  me  by 
telegraph  by  12  midnight  of  May  5-18.    The  progress 
of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  territory  now  held  by 
the  enemy  shall  be  reported  as  fast  as  the  same  is  car- 
ried out."* 


•Retch,"  May  10.  1915 


78 


CHAPTER  II 


RUSSIAN  PUBLIC  OPINION 


OPPRESSION  OF  JEWS  DENOUNCED  IN  DUMA 

Russian  Authorities  Playing  on  Evil  Instincts  of  the 

Masses 

In  the  Duma,  August  1,  1915. 

Professor  MILYUKOFF  (Leader  of  the  Constitution- 
al Democratic  Party)  : 

"Another  violation  of  the  internal  truce  was  the 
policy  adopted  by  the  authorities  towards  certain 
nationalities.  Here  again  the  partisan  prejudices  of  the 
authorities  were  especially  in  evidence.  The  playing  on 
the  evil  instincts  of  the  masses,  with  the  usual  policy 
of  anti-Semitism  and  persecution  of  all  'non-Russians' 
and  followers  of  other  than  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church, 
assumed  unheard-of  dimensions  under  cover  of  the  mili- 
tary situation. 

Deeds  Perpetrated  Upon  Jews  Like  the  Dark  Ages 

"However,  what  I  said  pales  before  the  deeds  per- 
petrated upon  the  Jews.  This  unhappy  people,  animated 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war  by  the  universal  patriotic 
enthusiasm,  soon  became  an  object  of  systematic  mock- 
ery. I  cannot,  gentlemen,  call  by  any  other  name  the 
accusation  of  treason  against  a  whole  people,  an  accusa- 
tion which  cannot  be  justified  by  isolated  cases  of  espion- 
age which  were  recorded  among  the  population  of  all 
nationalities  living  on  the  frontier.  Under  the  mask  of 
military  requirements,  unheard-of  measures  of  communal 


14 


responsibility  for  uncommitted  crimes  were  adopted — 
measures  reminding  one  of  the  savage  times  of  the  dark 
ages." 

In  the  Duma,  August  1,  1915 : 

Russian  Government  Takes  Hostages  From  Its  Own 
Subjects 

M.  T.  CHKHE1DZE  (Leader  of  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party)  : 

' '  You  speak  of  unity !  But  what  about  the  treatment 
meted  out  to  another  class  of  Russian  subjects  whose 
position  in  many  respects  resembles  that  of  the  workers. 
I  mean  the  Jewish  population,  numbering  some  six  mil- 
lions of  people?  Leading  members  of  Jewish  communi- 
ties in  Russia  are  being  taken  as  hostages  by  the  Russian 
authorities.  "Was  there  ever  a  Government  so  cynical 
as  to  take  hostages  from  their  own  subjects?  I  declare 
that  this  has  no  precedent  in  history."  (Interruption 
from  the  Right:  "Spies!")  "Before  speaking  of  es- 
pionage among  the  Jews  you  must  not  forget  your  own 
"Myasoyedoffs.  "*  (Voice  from  the  Right:  "Myasoyed- 
off  was  hanged.")  "Well,  there  are  probably  plenty 
still  left. 

Restriction  of  Rights  Promised  by  Russian  Officials 
to  Galician  Jews  as  a  Reward  of  Their  Loyalty 

"In  the  name  of  'unity'  what  have  your  authorities 
done  in  Galicia?  The  army  had  already  time  to  tread 
upon  the  soil  of  Galicia  when  the  Russian  Administra- 
tion, with  M.  Gregus  at  its  head  and  with  the  protection 
of  Count  Bobrinsky  and  Chikhacheff,  members  of  the 
Duma,  who,  I  believe,  are  now  present,  commenced  in- 
troducing the  elements  of  real  Russian  rule  in  this 
province,  and  to  the  anxious  inquiries  of  the  Galician 
Jews  as  to  their  ultimate  fate,  the  cynical  reply  was, 

*  See  note,  page  49. 


that  by  behaving  loyally  they  might  expect  to  be  put 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Jews  in  Russia!" 

In  the  Duma,  August  1,  1915 : 
M.  A.  KERENSKY  : 

Kuzhi  Accusation— A  Malicious  Slander 

"After  a  year's  war  we  see  before  us  the  Jews  crucified 
through  hatred  and  slanders.  I  proclaim  from  this 
tribune  that  I  personally  went  to  investigate  the  accu- 
sations alleged  against  the  Jews  of  Kuzhi,  that  they  had 
committed  treason  against  the  Russian  Army.  I  must 
reiterate  that  it  is  a  mean  slander  and  that  such  a  thing 
could  not,  because  of  local  conditions,  have  happened 
there."* 

In  the  Duma,  Aug.  2,  1915 : 

N.  M.  FREEDMAN  (Jewish  Deputy) : 

Patriotism  of  Russian  Jews 

' '  In  spite  of  their  oppressed  condition,  in  spite  of  their 
status  of  outlawry,  the  Jews  nevertheless  managed  to 
rise  to  the  exalted  mood  of  the  civil  populace  and  in 
the  course  of  the  last  year  to  participate  in  the  war  in 
a  noteworthy  manner.  They  fell  short  of  the  others  in 
no  respect.  They  mobilized  their  entire  enrollment,  but, 
indeed,  with  this  difference,  that  they  have  sent  also 
their  only  sons  into  the  war.  The  newspapers  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  had  a  remarkable  number  of  Jewish 
volunteers  to  record.  Gentlemen,  those  were  volunteers 
who,  if  judged  by  their  educational  attainments,  had  a 
right  to  the  rank  of  officers.  They  knew  that  they  would 
not  receive  this  official  rank,  and  nevertheless  they  en- 
tered the  war. 

"The  Jewish  youth,  who,  as  a  result  of  the  restric- 
tions as  to  admission  to  the  high  schools  of  the  country, 

*  Se*  also  page  65. 


76 


had  been  forced  to  study  abroad,  returned  home  when 
the  war  was  declared,  or  entered  the  armies  of  the  allied 
nations.  A  large  number  of  Jewish  students  fell  at  the 
defense  of  Liege  and  also  at  other  points  on  the  wesUrn 
front. 

"The  Zionistic  youths,  when  they  stood  before  the 
dilemma  of  accepting  Turkish  sovereignty  or  being  com- 
pelled to  emigrate  from  Palestine,  preferred  to  travel  to 
Alexandria  and  there  to  join  the  English  Army. 

"The  Jews  built  hospitals,  contributed  money,  and 
participated  in  the  war  in  every  respect  just  as  did  the 
other  citizens.  Many  Jews  received  marks  of  distinction 
for  their  conduct  at  the  front. 

Letter  from  a  Jewish  Patriot 

' '  Before  me  lies  the  letter  of  a  Jew  who  returned  from 
the  United  States  of  America : 

"  'I  risked  my  life,'  he  writes,  'and  if,  nevertheless,  I 
came  as  far  as  Archangel,  it  was  only  because  I  loved  my 
fatherland  more  than  my  life  or  than  that  American 
freedom  which  I  was  permitted  to  enjoy.  I  became  a 
soldier,  and  lost  my  left  arm  almost  to  the  shoulder.  I 
was  brought  into  the  governmental  district  of  Courland. 
Scarcely  had  I  reached  Riga  when  I  met  at  the  station 
my  mother  and  my  relatives,  who  had  just  arrived  there, 
and  who  on  that  same  day  were  compelled  to  leave  their 
hearth  and  home  at  the  order  of  the  military  authorities. 
Tell  the  gentlemen  who  sit  on  the  benches  of  the  Right 
that  I  do  not  mourn  my  lost  hand,  but  that  I  mourn 
deeply  the  lost  human  dignity  that  was  not  denied  to  me 
in  alien  lands.' 

"That  was  the  sentiment  of  the  Jews  that  found  ex- 
pression in  numerous  appeals  and  manifestations  in  the 
press,  and  finally  also  in  this  same  high  house.  Surely 
these  sentiments  should  have  been  taken  into  account. 
One  should  have  had  a  right  to  assume  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  adopt  measures  for  the  amelioration  of  the 
fate  of  the  Jews  who  found  themselves  in  the  very  centre 
of  the  warlike  occurrences.    Likewise,  one  should  have 


77 


taken  into  account  the  sentiments  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  Jews  who  shed  their  blood  on  the  field  of  battle. 


Wounded  Jewish  Soldiers  Refused  Leave  to  Stay  for 
Treatment  Outside  of  the  Pale 

' '  Instead  of  that,  however,  we  see  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  the  measures  of  reprisal  against  the 
Jewish  populace  were  not  only  not  weakened  but,  on  the 
contrary,  made  much  stronger.  Banished  were  Jews  and 
Jewesses  whose  husbands,  children,  and  brothers  were 
shedding  their  blood  for  the  fatherland.    A  wounded 
soldier  named  Alexander  Roschkow,  who  had  been  shot 
in  the  eye,  came  to  Charkof  for  further  treatment.  But 
the  authorities  would  not  permit  his  stay  outside  of  the 
Pale  and  marked  his  passport  with  the  words,  'To  be 
sent  back  to  the  Pale  of  Settlement.'    The  private 
soldier  Godlewski,  one  of  whose  legs  had  been  am- 
putated, and  who  found  himself  at  Rostov  on  the 
Don  for  recuperation,  they  tried  to  send  to  his  native 
village  in  the  Government  of  Kalisch,  where  the  Germans 
were  already  settled ;  and  it  was  only  due  to  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Rural  League  that  he  was  permitted  to  stay. 
An  apothecary's  helper,  who  likewise  had  been  wounded 
on  the  battlefield,  was  not  allowed  to  remain  in  Petro- 
grad  for  his  cure,  and  it  was  only  by  virtue  of  special 
intercession  that  he  was  later  allowed  to  sojourn  two 
months  more  at  Petrograd,  with  the  notice,  however, 
that  at  the  expiration  of  this  period  no  further  extension 
of  his  sojourn  would  be  granted. 

Jews  Again  as  Scapegoats 

,  "In  a  long  war  lucky  events  alternate  with  unlucky 
ones,  and  in  any  case  it  is  naturally  useful  to  have  scape- 
goats m  reserve.  For  this  purpose  there  exists  the  old 
firm,:  the  Jew.  Scarcely  has  the  enemy  reached  our 
frontiers  when  the  rumor  is  spread  that  Jewish  gold  is 
flowing  over  to  the  Germans,  and  that,  too,  in  aeroplanes, 
in  coffins,  and— in  the  entrails  of  geese ! 

78 


Over  500,000  Jews  Doomed  to  Beggary  and  Vaga- 
bondage by  Wholesale  Expulsions* 

"In  the  first  place  these  measures  consisted  of  the 
complete  transplanting  of  the  Jewish  population  from 
many  districts,  to  the  very  last  man.  These  compulsory 
migrations  took  place  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  and 
in  many  other  territories.  All  told,  about  a  half  million 
persons  have  been  doomed  to  a  state  of  beggary  and 
vagabondage.  Anyone  who  has  seen  with  his  own  eyes 
how  these  expulsions  take  place,  will  never  forget  them 
as  long  as  he  lives.  The  exiling  took  place  within  twenty- 
four  hours,  sometimes  within  two  days.  Women,  old 
men  and  children,  and  sometimes  invalids,  were  banished. 
Even  the  feeble-minded  were  taken  from  the  lunatic 
asylums  and  the  Jews  were  forced  to  take  these  with 
them.  In  Mogilnize,  5,000  persons  were  expelled  within 
twenty-four  hours.  Their  way  led  to  Warsaw  through 
Kalwarya.  Meantime  they  were  forced  to  travel  across 
fields  through  the  Government  of  Lublin,  and  were  de- 
prived of  the  possibility  of  taking  along  their  inventories. 
Many  were  obliged  to  travel  on  foot.  When  they  reached 
Lublin,  the  Jewish  Committee  there  had  provided  bread 
and  food  for  them;  but  they  were  not  allowed  to  tarry, 
find  they  had  to  travel  on  at  once. 

Not  Allowed  to  Bury  Their  Child 

' '  On  the  way  an  accident  occurred ;  a  six-year-old  child 
was  killed  by  a  fall.  The  parents  were  not  permitted 
to  bury  the  child. 

"I  saw  also  the  refugees  of  the  Government  of  Kovuo. 
Persons  who  only  yesterday  were  still  accounted  wealthy 
were  beggars  the  next  day.  Among  the  refugees  I  met 
Jewish  women  and  girls,  who  had  worked  together  with 
Russian  women,  had  sewed  garments  with  them,  and 
who  were  now  forced  to  encamp  on  the  railway  embank- 
ment. I  saw  families  of  reservists.  I  saw  among  the 
exiles  wounded  soldiers  wearing  the  Cross  of  St.  George. 

*Since  then  the  distress  has  more  than  doubled,  both  in  intensity  and 
volume.    See  page  126. 


79 


It  is  said  that  Jewish  soldiers  in  marching  through  the 
Polish  cities  were  forced  to  witness  the  expulsion  of  their 
wives  and  children.  The  Jews  were  loaded  in  freight- 
cars  like  cattle.  The  bills  of  lading  were  worded  as  fol- 
lows: 'Four  hundred  and  fifty  Jews,  en  route  to  -.' 

"There  were  cases  in  which  the  Governors  refused 
outright  to  take  in  the  Jews  at  all.  I  myself  was  in 
Vilna  at  the  very  time  when  a  whole  trainload  of  Jews 
was  stalled  for  four  days  in  the  Novo-Wilejsk  station. 
Those  were  Jews  who  had  been  sent  from  the  Govern- 
ment of  Kovno  to  the  Government  of  Poltawa,  but  the 
Governor  there  would  not  receive  them  and  sent  them 
back  to  Kovno,  whence  they  were  again  reshipped  to 
Poltawa.  Imagine,  at  a  time  when  every  railway  car  is 
needed  for  the  transportation  of  munitions,  when  from 
all  sides  are  heard  complaints  about  the  lack  of  means 
of  transportation,  the  Government  permits  itself  to  do 
such  a  thing !  At  one  station  there  stood  110  cars  con- 
taining Jewish  exiles. 

Persecution  of  Jews  in  Russia  Worse  Than  Spanish 
Inquisition 

"Another  measure  which  likewise  is  unprecedented  in 
the  entire  history  of  the  civilized  world,  is  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  so-called  system  of  'hostages,'  and,  indeed, 
hostages  were  taken  not  from  the  enemy,  but  from  the 
country's  own  subjects,  its  own  citizens.  Hostages  were 
taken  in  Radom,  Kjelzy,  Lomscha,  Kovno,  Riga,  Lublin, 
etc.  The  hostages  were  held  under  the  most  rigorous 
regime,  and  at  present  there  are  still  under  arrest  in 
Poltawa  Jewish  hostages  from  the  Governments  of 
Kjelzy  and  Radom. 

"Some  time  ago,  in  commenting  upon  the  procedure 
against  the  Jews,  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  even  be- 
fore the  outbreak  of  the  war,  used  the  expression  that  we 
were  approaching  the  times  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
I  now  assert  that  we  have  already  surpassed  that  era. 
No  Jewish  blood  was  shed  in  defense  of  Spain,  but  ours 


flowed  the  moment  the  Jews  helped  defend  the  Father- 
land. 

Jews  Oppressed  by  the  Russian  Government  But  Not 
by  the  Russian  People 

"Yes,  we  are  beyond  the  pale  of  the  laws,  we  are  op- 
pressed, we  have  a  hard  life,  but  we  know  the  source  of 
that  evil:  it  comes  from  those  benches  (pointing  to  the 
boxes  of  the  Ministers).  We  are  being  oppressed  by  the 
Russian  Government,  not  by  the  Russian  people.  Why, 
then,  is  it  surprising  if  we  wish  to  unite  our  destinies, 
not  with  that  of  the  Russian  Government,  but  with  that 
of  the  Russian  people  ?  When  three  years  ago  there  was 
pending  here  the  Kholm  law  proposal,  did  the  thought 
ever  occur  at  that  time  to  the  sponsors  of  the  bill  that  in 
a  short  time  they  would  have  to  scrape  and  bow  before 
free  autonomous  Poland?  We  likewise  hope  that  the 
time  is  not  distant  when  we  can  be  citizens  of  the  Russian 
State  with  full  equality  of  privileges  with  the  free  Rus^ 
sian  people. 

"Before  the  face  of  the  entire  country,  before  the 
entire  civilized  world,  I  declare  that  the  calumnies 
against  the  Jews  are  the  most  repulsive  lies  and  chimeras 
of  persons  who  will  have  to  be  responsible  for  their 
crimes. ' ' 


81 


CHAPTER  HI 


THE  GOVERNMENT  INTERPELLATED 


On  the  16th  of  August,  1915,  an  interpellation  on  the 
treatment  of  the  Jews  in  war-time  was  brought  forward 
in  the  Duma  by  the  Social  Democratic  Party,  the 
Peasant-Labor  Group,  and  the  Constitutional  Democrats. 
The  interpellation  dealt  with :  1.  The  wholesale  expul- 
sion of  Jews  from  their  homes  in  the  war  zone  (see 
page  18).  2.  The  Kuzhi  affair  whereby  the  stigma  of 
treason  was  officially  fixed  upon  the  Jewish  people  (see 
page  17).  3.  The  taking  of  hostages  as  security  for 
the  loyalty  of  the  Jewish  population  (see  page  60). 

In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  debate  .the  following 
opinions  were  voiced : 

DZUBINSKY,  Peasant-Labor  Group : 

Military  Authorities  Create  Fictitious  Culprits — the 
Jew — to  Protect  Real  Traitors 

"All  the  misdeeds  enumerated  in  the  Interpellation 
which  were  carried  out  with  such  energy  by  the  civil 
and  military  authorities  show  that  even  the  military 
authorities,  instead  of  using  this  energy  and  attention 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  proper  task,  are  diverting  the 
attention  of  society  into  another  direction  which  is  ab- 
solutely injurious.  This  is  probably  being  done  with 
the  intention  of  finding  a  fictitious  culprit,  to  concen- 
trate upon  him  the  attention  of  the  people  so  that  in 
the  meantime  the  real  culprits  may  escape.  A  screen  is 
thereby  put  up  for  the  Myasoyedoffs  and  other  of  our 
traitors  behind  which  they  may  take  shelter. 


82- 


Expulsions  Performed  With  Immeasurable  Brutality 

"As  representative  of  the  5th  Siberian  Division  I  have 
been  at  the  front,  and  can  bear  personal  witness  to  the 
immeasurable  brutality  with  which  the  Jews  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  province  of  Radom.*  The  old,  the  sick 
and  the  paralyzed  had  to  be  carried  in  arms,  as  no  means 
of  conveyance  were  obtainable. 

"At  one  of  the  stations,  for  instance,  the  Jewish  Com- 
mittee of  Homel  was  not  permitted  to  hand  food  or 
water  or  give  any  assistance  to  the  fugitives  who  were 
in  the  carriages  of  the  train.  In  one  case  the  carriages 
of  a  train  conveying  the  expelled  were  not  even  opened 
once  during  the  whole  journey,  and  at  the  stations  en 
route  nobody  was  permitted  to  approach  the  carriages. 
Most  of  the  expelled  in  this  train  were  found  afterwards 
half  dead,  sixteen  had  the  scarlet  fever,  one  was  ill 
with  typhoid  fever,  and  one  woman  died  of  exhaustion 
on  the  third  day.  The  Jewish  Committee  of  Poltava 
was  officially  reprimanded  by  the  Governor  of  Poltava 
for  calling  itself  ' '  Committee  for  the  Relief  of  the  Jewish 
War  Sufferers."  He  requested  the  Committee  to  alter 
the  name  to  "Committee  for  the  relief  of  expelled 
Jews."  The  Jews,  he  said,  were  expelled  because  they 
were  "politically  unsound." 

Jews  Taken  as  Hostages  and  Cast  into  Prison  Solely 
Because  They  Command  Respect 

■  "The  most  arbitrary  and  cruel  measure  of  all  is 
the  notorious  order  prescribing  the  taking  of  host- 
ages from  our  own  subjects.  Note,  such  hostages 
were  taken  from  among  the  most  wealthy  and  from 
among  those  who  are  held  in  great  respect  even 
by  the  authorities.  I  ask  you,  by  what  law  of  the 
Russian  Empire  are  people  cast  into  prison  solely 
because  they  command  respect?  By  what  law  is  it  per- 
mitted to  try  and  punish  absolutely  innocent  people  for 

*  See  also  page  56. 


83 


offences  committed  by  others?  Even  now  there  are 
about  400  such  hostages  in  the  prisons  of  Poltava, 
Ekaterinoslav,  and  Mohileff,  who  are  in  constant  danger 
of  being  hanged  at  any  moment.  At  Sochachoff  three 
such  hostages  were  hanged  for  a  crime  not  committed 
by  them,  but  by  persons  quite  unknown  to  them." 
CHKHEIDZE,  Leader  of  the  Social  Democrats: 
"The  whole  of  Russia  and  the  whole  world  know  who 
are  the  people  responsible  for  the  present  position  in 
which  Russia  finds  herself,  either  at  the  theatre  of  war 
or  behind  the  battle  line.  The  whole  country  knows  that 
they  are  not  the  Jews,  but  those  who  fatten  on  Govern- 
ment contracts  in  connection  with  the  supply  of  the 
army.  The  culprits  are  those  who,  with  the  help  of  the 
Myasoyedoffs,*  Grotguses,  and  others,  were  betraying 
Russia. 

Crippled  in  Battle  Jewish  Volunteers  Barred  From 
Employment  Outside  of  the  Pale 

"What  justice  is  this  that  requires  that  a  Jewish 
volunteer,  who  has  been  several  times  in  battle,  and  is 
now  crippled  and  mutilated,  should  be  sent  out  within 
twenty-four  hours  from  places  in  Russia  where  he  is 
looking  for  employment?  What  humanity  is  this  which 
forbids  the  offering  of  food  to  hungry  Jewish  fugitives 
kept  in  sealed  wagons  at  the  stations,  as  our  authorities 
bave  done?  What  freedom  is  this  to  have  the  whole 
Jewish  Press  suppressed  and  destroyed  by  a  single 
stroke  of  the  pen?  What  brotherhood  is  this  when  a 
part  of  the  army  is  set  against  the  Jewish  soldiers  whc 
are  risking  their  lives  in  the  same  trenches  with  the 
others?  What  ethical  or  aesthetic  principle  underlies 
the  outraging  of  a  Jewish  woman  within  the  precincts 
of  the  Synagogue,  whither  she  flew  in  the  hope  of  es- 
caping her  terrible  fate?"  (Shouts  from  the  Right: 
"What?  Shame!")  "Shame,  indeed,  but  this  is  a 
fact." 

•  See  note  page  49. 


84 


' '  By  virtue  of  what  code  are  Jewish  subjects  of  Russia 
being  taken  as  hostages  and  thrown  into  prison,  in  order 
to  subject  them  to  tortue  and  death?" 

Duma  Committee  Denounces  as  Illegal  Jewish  Expul- 
sions, Slander  and  Taking  of  Hostages 

On  being  put  to  a  vote,  Chkheidze's  motion  was 
adopted  and  referred  to  a  committee  of  the  Duma. 
The  findings  of  the  committee  in  connection  with  these 
three  points  were: 

"1.  Orders  of  military  authorities  cannot  form  the 
subject  of  an  Interpellation  in  the  Duma,  but  the  carry- 
ing into  effect  of  such  orders  and  under  the  conditions 
described  are  aboslutely  illegal. 

"2.  Compulsion  used  in  respect  of  newspapers,  oblig- 
ing them  to  publish  the  official  communique  containing 
the  story  of  Kuzhi,  was  illegal. 

"3.  The  authorities,  in  accepting  the  hostages,  were 
acting  unlawfully." 

All  the  three  points  were  adopted  by  the  committee, 
and  A.  M.  Maslenikoff  (Progressist)  was  instructed  to 
report  to  the  Duma. 

The  Interpellation  went  no  further,  however.  The 
Duma  was  prorogued  before  the  Committee  reported 
upon  the  subject. 


86 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  CENSORSHIP 

In  the  Duma,  September  7  and  10. 
PROFESSOR  MILYUKOFF,  Constitutional  Demo- 
crat : 

Statement  Exonerating  Jews  Suppressed  by  Censor 

.  "All  information  concerning  deeds  of  valor  by,  or  dis- 
tinctions bestowed  upon,  Jews  was  suppressed  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course  in  conformity  with  the  circular.  The  cen- 
sor, for  instance,  suppressed  the  declaration  made  by 
Obninsky,  member  of  the  first  Duma,  in  which  he  said : 
'During  the  eight  months  of  my  stay  in  Galicia  I  had 
numerous  occasions  to  satisfy  myself  as  to  the  ground- 
lessness of  the  legend  about  the  prevalence  of  espionage 
among  the  Jews.  The  number  of  convictions  at  the 
Russian  field  courts-martial  was  insignificant;  it  hardly 
reached  10  out  of  a  hundred  tried.  As  to  the  Jewish 
privates  in  the  Russian  Army,  I  heard  nothing  but  good 
reports  of  them  from  commanders  of  regiments,  brigades 
and  divisions.' 

But  Circulation  of  Cynical  and  Incendiary  Advice  to 
Exterminate  Jews  Tolerated  by  Censorship 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  censor  permits  the  following 
opinions  in  the  notorious  paper  Grosa:  'Now  an  excellent 
opportunity  presents  itself  of  making  an  end  of  the 
Jewish  question.  Nothing  more  is  required  than  to 
gather  the  Jews  from  all  over  Russia  and  drive  them  into 
those  towns  which  are  sure  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
Germans.  The  Jews  may  then  be  struck  off  the  roll  of 
Russian  subjects.  Afterwards,  when  the  Russian  troops 
commence  reconquering  these  towns,  the  Jews  should  be 
driven  further  on  to  the  German  lines  and  all  their 
property  should  be  confiscated.    If  we  do  not  take  ad- 


86 


vantage  of  this  splendid  opportunity,  a  better  occasion 
will  never  arise. ' 


All  Yiddish  Periodicals  With  a  Circulation  of  About 
300,009  Suspended 

"By  a  single  stroke  of  the  pen  the  entire  Yiddish 
press  had  been  suspended,  and  no  Yiddish  newspaper 
is  permitted  to  appear.  Even  the  present  'renovated' 
Cabinet  has  not  repealed  this  interdiction.  In  Warsaw, 
Vilna,  and  Odessa  eleven  publications  were  closed,  of 
which  the  dailies  Haint  had  a  circulation  of  130,000, 
Moment  over  100,000,  Unser  Lebeu  20,000,  six  other 
publications  varying  in  circulation  between  5,000  and 
8,000.  You  will  see  from  this  that  they  were  not  little 
sheets  without  readers,  but  papers  serving  the  needs  of 
a  whole  nation,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  do  not  com- 
mand any  other  language  but  Yiddish. ' ' 

SKOBELEFF,  Social  Democrat : 

Yiddish  Correspondence  Destroyed 

"The  policy  of  the  Government  remained  the  same 
even  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The  labor  press 
having  been  suppressed  before  the  war,  it  was  now  the 
turn  of  the  non-Russian  periodicals.  Of  the  Ukrainian 
press  nothing  but  the  memory  of  it  was  left.  Over 
twenty  periodical  publications,  from  the  dailies  to  the 
scientific  monthlies,  were  suppressed.  Already  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war  Yiddish  correspondence,  irrespec- 
tive of  its  contents,  was  being  destroyed  in  large  quan- 
tities by  the  postal  authorities  in  numerous  places  in 
Russia.  Most  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jewish 
soldiers  who  can  only  write  Yiddish  were  thus  denied 
the  possibility  of  sending  letters  home  and,  may  be,  of 
sending  their  last  farewell  to  their  mothers." 

DYMSZA,  Polish  Group: 

Country  Ruined  by  Government 

"  When  the  forcible  removal  of  the  whole  population 
from  the  kingdom  of  Poland  and  the  deliberate  destruc- 


87 


tiOh  Of  the  wealth  of  the  country  commenced,  the  mili- 
tary censorship  suppressed  all  statements  made  in  con- 
nection with  it,  Nobody  was  to  know  of  the  terrible 
violence  done  to  us.  And  what  was  the  result?  The  State 
had  incurred  incalculable  losses,  a  whole  country  was 
ruined  economically  and  ethnographically,  several  mil- 
lions of  people  were  made  paupers  and  are  now  being 
sent  to  Siberia.   All  this  was  kept  secret  from  us. ' ' 

SUKHANOFF,  Peasant-Labor : 

Jewish  Newspapers  Never  Ceased  to  Inspire  Jewish 
Masses  With  Russian  Patriotism 

"  .  .  .  Making  use  of  the  law  against  espionage, 
the  Minister  of  Internal  Affairs  converted  the  organ  for 
censorship  of  the  press  into  an  organ  for  mockery  of 
public  opinion.  All  periodical  publications  appearing 
in  the  Jewish  language  were  suspended.  This  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  Jewish  newspapers  from  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  never  ceased  appealing  to  the 
Jewish  masses  to  do  their  duty  to  Russia." 

BOMASH,  Jewish  member: 

Censorship  Encourages  Falsehoods  and  Libels 
Against  Jews 

"The  censorship  has  set  out  to  suppress  the  truth 
about  the  Jews,  and  to  encourage  all  sorts  of  falsehoods 
and  libels  upon  us.  On  the  one  hand,  circulars  were 
issued  requesting  the  press  not  to  incite  one  part  of  the 
population  against  the  other,  and,  on  the  other  hand 
the  censor  passed,  for  example,  such  opinions  as  'that 
the  Jews  at  the  front  are  the  enemies  of  our  army  » 
which  appeared  in  the  Novoye  Vremya,  or  'that  not  one 
Jewish  soldier  is  to  be  trusted,'  etc.,  which  appeared  in 
the  Russkoe  Znamia.  The  censor  permits  the  publication 
of  such  absurdities  as  Jewish  doctors  maiming  Russian 
^Sp^  ^  C-  «  -d  infecLg  them 


CHAPTER  V 


IN  THE  COUNCIL  OF  STATE  (UPPER  CHAM-^ 

BER)  : 

From  a  speech  delivered  on  the  17th  of  September, 
1915, 

By  Baron  Rosen 

former  Russian  Ambassador  at  Washington: 

Outrageous  Treatment  of  Russian  Jews  Detrimental 
to  Cause  of  Allies 

"In  our  policy  towards  our  border  provinces,  and 
towards  the  so-called  non-Russian  nationalities,  we  have, 
to  the  greatest  detriment  of  the  real  interests  of  Russia, 
followed  closely  the  German  system  of  government.  We 
have  even  improved  upon  it  by  an  addition  of  medieval 
religious  intolerance. 

"It  is  inconceivable  that  those  who  guide  our  home 
policy  should  fail  to  realize  that  by  our  medieval  treat- 
ment of  the  Jewish  population  of  Russia,  and  by  our 
systematic  outrages  upon  the  constitutional  habit  of 
mind  of  the  Finnish  people,  we  are  helping  enormously 
the  pro-German  propaganda  in  neutral  countries  which 
our  enemies  carry  on  with  lavish  means  to  the  detriment 
of  the  cause  of  the  Allies. 

' '  The  question  is,  why  has  not  our  Government  settled 
the  question  once  and  for  all,  as  it  did — alas  so  late — 
the  question  of  Polish  autonomy?  The  only  answer  is 
that  our  Government  did  not  wish  to  renounce  a  tradi- 
tional policy  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  our  militant  Na- 
tionalists. 

89 


Abolition  of  Jewish  Restrictions  Would  Help  Russia 
in  International  Affairs 

"It  is  therefore  incumbent  upon  the  Legislative 
Chambers  to  assist  the  Government  in  this  matter,  and 
to  introduce  bills  abolishing  all  the  restrictive  laws 
against  the  Jews,  and  cancelling  the  law  of  July  17  (30) 

concerning  Finland.   

' '  Such  measures  would  undoubtedly  facilitate  the  task 
of  the  Government  in  international  matters,  and  would 
meet  with  the  lively  appreciation  of  our  valiant  allies. 

"We  must  bear  in  mind  that  this  great  European  War 
is  not  only  a  conflict  of  interests,  but  also  of  ideas  and 
principles.  In  fighting  against  German  militarism,  Rus- 
sia is  taking  her  stand  on  the  side  of  those  who  fight 
for  the  triumph  of  the  idea  of  Right  and  Freedom,  and 
it  is  necessary  that  no  longer  shall  there  be  people  in 
Russia  oppressed  or  deprived  of  their  rights." 


CHAPTER  VI 


IN  MUNICIPAL  AND  ZEMSTVO  COUNCILS,  IN 
CONVENTIONS  OP  PUBLIC  OFFICIALS,  Etc. 

Various  municipalities  outside  the  Pale  have  peti- 
tioned the  government  to  give  equal  rights  to  the  Jews. 

The  Municipal  Council  of  Smolensk,  at  its  session  of 
December  19,  1914  (January  1,  1915),  passed  a  resolu- 
tion, with  only  two  dissenting  votes,  petitioning  the 
government  "to  abolish  all  measures  which  restrict  the 
rights  of  Russian  subjects  of  the  Jewish  faith,  and,  in 
particular,  to  abolish  the  Pale  of  Settlement. ' '  * 

Before  his  departure  from  the  Caucasus,  the  retiring 
Viceroy,  General  Count  Vorontzoff-Dashkoff,  received  a 
Jewish  deputation.  The  Count  in  addressing  the  dele- 
gates said :  "I  have  always  been  in  favor  of  granting 
equal  rights  to  the  Jews,  and  shall  be  happy  to  live  to 
see  them  as  fully  emancipated  citizens."** 

In  August,  1914,  a  meeting  of  municipality,  Zemstvo, 
Stock  Exchange,  and  University  Officials  and  merchants, 
at  Odessa,  resolved  that  the  country  would  benefit  by 
the  abolition  of  all  repressive  laws  and  the  opening  of 
educational  institutions  to  all  citizens.f 

In  August,  1914,  the  Moscow  Conference  of  Mayors 
also  forcibly  condemned  the  expulsion  policy  of  some 
governors  and  resolved  to  use  its  influence  to  ameliorate 
the  position  of  the  Jews.| 

So  also  the  Congress  of  Delegates  from  cities  of 
Western  Siberia  petitioned  for  the  abolition  of  all  Jewish 
disabilities.  *** 

•  "Novy  Voskhod,"  Dec.  30,  1914,  Jan.  12,  1916. 

"  London,  J.  Ch.,  Oct.  22,  1915.  . 

t  "Novy  Voskhod,"  Sept.  4,  1914,  p.  15. 

t  "Novy  Voskhod,"  Aug.  14  (27).  1914,  p.  24-25. 

»»»  "Novy  Voskhod,"  April  24  May  24  (May  7)  1915,  p.  30. 

01 


Within  the  past  few  months  the  municipalities  of 
Samara,  Saratov,  Yekaterinoslov  and  other  important 
centers;  the  Siberian  Municipal  Conference,  and  the 
Conference  of  twenty  Zemstvos  held  at  Yaroslavl  all 
petitioned  the  government  an  dthe  Duma  to  remove  the 
disabilities  affecting  the  Jews  of  Russia. 


82 


CHAPTER  VII 


IN  TRADE  AND  PROFESSIONAL 
ORGANIZATIONS 

The  Military-Industrial  Committee,  organized  in  May, 
1915,  to  integrate  the  economic  resources  of  the  country 
on  a  ar  basis,  met  on  August  25,  1915,  and  condemned 
the  incompetence  of  the  government  openly.  In  his 
presidential  appress  P.  P.  Riabushinski  deplored  the 
tardiness  of  the  government  in  calling  upon  the  social 
forces  of  the  country.  "This  leadership  of  the  country 
has  been  attempted  by  persons  incapable  of  leadership, 
and  it  is  now  evident  to  everybody  that  a  new  personnel 
is  needed  within  the  government.  .  .  .  We  have 
observed  the  workings  of  the  government  departments 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  and  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  these  departments  are  unable  to  meet 
the  situation.  ...  It  cannot  be  denied  that  Russia 
is  at  the  present  moment  facing  a  great  danger,  and  we 
fear  that  the  time  may  come  when  our  courage  will 
sink.  .  .  .  (censored).  Our  army  is  suffering  hero- 
ically.   .    .    .  (censored)." 

This  address  was  met  with  thunderous  applause. 
Another  speaker,  Prof.  E.  L.  Zubashov,  speaking  of  the 
Jews,  declared  that:  "The  sons  of  the  Jewish  nation 
are  now  fighting  side  by  side  with  the  Russians  for  their 
country.  Unfortunately  this  country  has  until  now  been 
only  a  step-mother  to  them.  Let  us  express  the  hope 
that  it  may  now  become  a  mother  to  them."  He,  there- 
fore, proposed  a  resolution  favoring  the  abolition  of  all 
restrictive  laws  against  the  Jews.   His  proposal  was  met 


93 


with  prolonged  applause  and  was  accepted  by  the  con- 

vention.*  .    _    .  . 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Free  Economic  Society-the 
foremost  economic  organization  of  Russia-on  January 
16,  1915,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  unan- 
imously : 

"  .  .  .  While  they  are  suffering  all  the  terrors  of 
war  together  with  the  rest  of  the  population,  the  Jewish 
population,  being  mainly  urban,  has  suffered  particularly 
from  the  general  disorganization  of  economic  relations 
not  only  within  the  immediate  region  of  military  activi- 
ties, but  far  beyond.    .    .  . 

"At  the  same  time  the  Jewish  population  is  even  at 
this  exceptional  time  artificially  confined  to  the  cities  of 
Poland  and  the  western  provinces  by  force  of  existing 
legal  limitations  which  increases  the  hardships  of  war 
for  them.  If  in  time  of  peace  these  restrictions,  which 
are  harmful  economically  and  offensive  morally,  are 
recognized  as  a  relic  of  barbarism  that  must  be  abolished, 
it  is  all  the  more  difficult  to  reconcile  ourselves  with  them 
at  the  present  time,  when  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
Jews  serve  under  the  Russian  banners  on  the  battlefield. 

"In  view  of  the  fact  the  Commission  has  decided  to 
request  the  Council  of  the  Free  Economic  Society  to 
communicate  with  the  government  and  members  of  the 
society  who  are  members  of  the  legislative  bodies : — 

"  '  To  immediately  stop  the  functioning  of  all  restrict- 
ive laws  relating  to  the  Settlement  of  Jews,  and 

"  'To  abolish  them  immediately  and  permanently  by 
legislative  enactment.'  "  ** 

Numerous  commercial  and  technical  associations  have 
passed  resolutions  declaring  that  the  main  cause  of 
Russia's  economic  backwardness  lay  in  the  restrictions 
placed  upon  Jews,  and  that  the  sole  means  of  combating 
German  predominance  over  Russian  industry  and  trade 

I.".?,?tch'."  Ju,y  28  (A"f?-  10),  1915. 
"Rasviet,"  Jan.  25  (Feb.  7),  1915. 


94 


is  through  the  abolition  of  these  restrictions.*  Among 
these  organizations  are  the  national  grain,  lumber,  fur 
and  gold  trades ;  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  Moscow, 
Petrograd  and  the  leading  cities  of  Russia  and  Siberia, 
the  Convention  of  representatives  of  finance,  commerce 
and  agriculture,  and  the  national  Congress  of  Bourses; 
the  Russo-American  Chamber  of  Commerce,  etc.  Prac- 
tically every  national  convention  of  every  industry  .has 
petitioned  the  government  to  liberate  the  economic  talents 
cf  the  Jews  by  the  removal  of  all  legal  restrictions. 


*  Especially  characteristic  in  this  respect  is  the  inquiry  addressed  by 
the  Moscow  Merchants'  Association  to  its  country  members,  dealers, 
manufacturers,  etc.,  on  the  subject  of  the  best  means  of  combating 
"German  economic  domination."  The  replies  have  been  published  as  a 
special  report  from  which  the  following  is  quoted: 

"All  of  the  replies  favor  the  abolition  of  the  'Pale  of  Settlement.' 
This  measure  is  considered  .  .  .  primarily  as  one  of  the  means  for 
combating  German  influence  in  our  industry.  The  hope  is  ex- 
pressed that  the  abolition  of  the  'Pale  of  Settlement'  will  en- 
courage the  activity  of  the  middlemen  and  introduce  them  to  the 
great  masses  of  the  consumers." — The  "Yevreiskaya  Nedelia," 
No.  5,  1915. 


95 


CHAPTER  VIII 


LEADING  RUSSIAN  PUBLICISTS  AND  WRITERS 
Manifesto  on  Position  of  Jews 

Two  hundred  and  twenty-five  (225)  leading  Russian 
publicists  and  writers  have  issued  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  a  manifesto  which  declares  (in  part)  : 

"The  sorely-tried  Jewish  nation  which  has  given  to  the 
world  such  precious  contributions  in  the  domain  of  relig- 
ion, of  philosophy,  of  poetry;  which  has  always  shared 
the  travails  and  trials  of  Russian  life;  which  has  been 
hurt  so  often  by  prejudice  and  insult;  which  more  than 
once  has  proven  its  love  for  Russia,  and  its  devotion  to 
her  cause  is  now  again  exposed  to  unjust  accusations  and 
persecutions. 

"The  Russian  Jews,  who  are  industriously  working 
with  us  in  all  spheres  of  labor  and  activity  that  are  ac- 
cessible to  them,  have  given  so  many  convincing  proofs 
of  their  sincere  desire  to  be  with  us,  to  render  service 
to  our  cause  .  .  .  that  the  limitation  of  their  right 
to  citizenship  is  not  only  a  crying  injustice,  but  also 
reacts  injuriously  to  the  very  interests  of  the  State. 

Complete  Emancipation  of  Jews  Demanded 

"Russians,  let  us  remember  that  the  Russian  Jew  has 
no  other  country  than  Russia,  and  that  nothing  is  dearer 
to  a  man  than  the  soil  on  which  he  is  born.  Let  us  un- 
derstand that  the  prosperity  and  power  of  Russia  are 
inseparable  to  the  well  being  and  the  liberty  of  all  the 
nationalities  which  constitute  its  vast  Empire.  Let  us 
understand  this  truth,  act  according  to  our  intelligence 

96 


and  our  conscience,  and  we  shall  be  certain  that  the  ulti- 
mate disappearance  of  persecutions  against  the  Jews  and 
their  complete  emancipation  shall  form  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  a  truly  constructive  regime. ' ' 

LEONID  ANDRE  IEPF,  distinguished  Russian  nov- 
elist : 

Persecutions  and  Restrictions  Fatally  Crippling  Lives 
of  Russian  Jews 

"  .  .  .  A  near  solution  of  the  'Jewish  question' 
evokes  a  holiday  spirit,  a  feeling  of  bright,  enthusiastic 
joy..  For,  if  for  the  Jews  themselves  the  Pale,  the  edu- 
cational embargo,  and  the  rest  was  a  fatal  and  immov- 
able fact,  crippling  their  lives,  they  were  for  me,  the 
Russian,  something  like  an  immovable,  deforming  ex- 
crescence, received  at  an  unknown  time  or  condition. 

"Is  it  not  queer  and  strange  to  think  at  present  that 
our  alleged  "barbarity,"  of  which  we  are  accused  by 
our  enemies  and  which  makes  our  friends  so  indecisive 
and  confused,  should  be  wholly  and  exclusively  based 
on  our  Jewish  question  and  its  bloody  excesses? 
Take  away  from  Russia  these  excesses,  even  if  you  were 
to  leave  anti-semitism  in  those  outwardly  decent  forms 
under  which  it  is  completing  its  last  days  in  the  back- 
ward countries  of  western  Europe,  and  we  shall  at  once 
become  very  decent  Europeans,  by  no  means  Asiatics  or 
barbarians,  whose  place  is  beyond  the  Ural  Mountains. 

"I  need  not  refer  to  Jewish  heroism  in  the  defence 
of  the  country,  to  their  tragic  loyalty  and  love  for  Rus- 
sia, in  order  to  justify  the  new  measures.  To  demon- 
strate time  and  again  that  'the  Jew  is  also  a  man,' 
would  be  bowing  too  low  to  an  absurdity,  would  insult 
those  whom  you  love  and  respect. 

"To  the  Jews'  tragic  love  for  Russia  corresponds  our 
equally  tragic  love  for  Europe,  for  we  ourselves  are  the 
Jews  of  Europe ;  our  frontier  is  the  same  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment, the  unique  old  Russian  Ghetto.  And  let  our  Push- 


97 


kin  and  Dostoyevsky,  like  your  Byalik,  demonstrate  to 
Europe  that  we,  too,  ore  MEN. 

T.  MALYANTOVICH  (noted  Russian  lawyer  and 
publicist)  : 

Promotion  of  Russian  National  Cause  Demands 
Rights  for  Jews 

"The  struggle  for  equal  right  for  the  Jews  is  for  the 
Russian  his  own  cause,  a  real  national  cause  of  the  first 
importance. 

"The  outlawed  condition  of  the  Jews  has  doomed  the 
Russian  people  to  impotence  in  the  achievement  of  its 
own  happiness.  The  past  has  revealed  the  obvious  and 
inevitable  connection  between  the  position  of  the  Jews 
and  the  general  state  of  our  political  and  social  life. 
It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  postpone  to  a  more  con- 
venient time  the  question  of  equal  rights  for  the  Jews. 

"For  the  Russian  people  there  is  no  'Jewish  ques- 
tion.'  And,  therefore,  for  its  solution  there  is  no  neces- 
sity to  love  the  Jew.  You  may  even  hate  them.  It  is 
only  necessary  for  you  to  love  yourself,  your  fatherland 
and  your  people."  * 

M.  GORKY  (famous  Russian  novelist). 


Anti  Semitism — A  Zoological  Instinct 


"Time  and  again,— and  ever  more  frequently, — cir- 
cumstances compel  the  Russian  writer  to  remind  his 
compatriots  of  some  indisputable  alphabetical  truths. 

it  is  a  very  difficult  task— there  is  painful  awkward- 
ness in  telling  grown  up  and  literate  men : 

Gentlemen  !  It  is  necessary  to  be  humane.  Humanity 
is  not  only  beautiful ;  it  is  also  useful  to  you. 

The  hatred  to  the  Jew  is  a  zoological  bestial  phenome- 

*  From  the  hook  "Shchit",  issued  by  Gorky,  Andreyev,  etc. 


98 


non — you  must  combat  it  arduosly  for  the  sake  of  a  more 
rapid  growth  of  social  instincts  and  social  culture. 

The  Jews  are  human  beings — just  as  good  as  the  rest 
of  us — and  as  all  human  beings  they  must  be  free. 

Any  man  performing  all  the  duties  of  citizenship 
eo  ipso  deserves  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  of  sitizen- 
ship. 

Every  one  has  a  right  to  engage  his  energies  in  all 
branches  of  labor,  and  in  all  fields  of  culture  and  the 
wider  the  limits  of  personal  and  social  activities  the 
more  will  the  life  of  the  country  gain  in  force  and  in 
beauty. 

There  are  many  more  equally  simple  truths  which 
should  have  long  since  entered  into  the  flesh  and  blood 
of  Russian  society,  but  have,  nevertheless,  not  entered 
and  are  not  entering. 

Disgraceful    Position    of    Jews — Result    of  Russia 
Carelessness 

I  repeat,  it  is  a  very  difficult  task  to  assume  the  part 
of  a  preacher  of  social  conventionalities,  and  to  tell  the 
people:  It  is  not  good;  it  is  not  worthy  of  you,  to  live 
such  a  filthy,  careless,  Asiatic  life— wash  yourselves! 

And  with  all  your  love  of  humanity,  with  all  your 
pity  for  them,  at  times  you  are  stupefied  in  cold  despair 
and  with  some  kind  of  hatred,  you  think:  Where,  after 
all,  is  that  famous,  beautiful,  broad,  Russian  soul? 
There  was  so  much  talk  about  it,  but  where  is  it?  In 
what  indeed  does  its  forcefulness,  broadness,  beauty  find 
expression  ? 

The  disgraceful  position  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  is  also 
one  of  the  results  of  our  carelessness  towards  ourselves, 
of  our  indifference  to  the  severe  and  just  demands  of  life. 

In  this  stain — there  is  the  detestable  poison  of  slander 
—there  are  the  tears  and  the  blood  of  numberless 
pogroms. 

<t<) 


The  Russian  Muzhisk 

it  is  intolerable  to  see  that  people  that  have  performed 
,n  much  of  beautiful,  wise  and  necessary  things  for  the 
World,  are  living  among  us  oppressed  by  restricted  laws, 
which  in  every  way  limit  their  rights  to  life,  labor  and 
However,  when  the  Russian  muzhik 
feasant)  hears'of  the  persecutions  to  which  the  Jews 
are  subjected,  he  says  with  the  equanimity  of  an  East- 
erner- "The  innocent  is  not  prosecuted,  is  not  beaten." 

He  at  least  might  have  known  that  in  Holy  Russia  the 
innocent  is  much  too  often  prosecuted  and  beaten,  but 
his  ideas  of  the  just  and  the  guilty  have  been  confound- 
ed for  ages,  the  sense  of  injustice  is  weakly  developed  in 
his  struggling  soul,  and  is  distorted  by  the  boyars  and 
the  horrors  of  servitude. 

The  Russian  Mob 

Tn  addition  to  the  people  there  is  one  more  element— 
"the  mob  "—something  outside  of  society,  outside  of  cul- 
ture, united  by  the  dark  sense  of  hatred  to  everything 
that  is  beyond  his  intelligence  and  that  is  defenseless. 
I  am  speaking  of  that  mob  which — in  Pushkin's — defines 
itself  as  follows : 

We  are  small-souled  in  aim 

Wicked,  shameless  and  ungrateful ; 

Our  hearts  are  cold  and  dead  to  love ; 

Calumniators,  slaves  and  fools. 
It  is  the  mob  that  mainly  gives  expression  to  zoological 
instincts  as  judophobia. 

Defenselessness  of  Russian  Jews 

And  the  Jews  are  defenseless,  and  this  fact  is  espe- 
cially perilous  under  the  conditions  of  Russian  life. 
Dostoyevsky,  who  knew  thoroughly  the  Russian  soul, 
pointed  out  time  and  again  that  defenselessness  excites 
m  her  a  voluptuous  tendency  to  criminality. 


100 


For  the  last  years  a  great  many  people  grew  up,  and 
these  were  taught  to  think  that  they  are  the  best  men  on 
earth,  that  their  enemies  are  the  inorodtsi  (foreign 
races),  and  firts  and  foremost  the  Jews. 

These  people  are  gradually  being  persuaded  that  all 
the  Jews  are  a  restless  element — strikers  and  agitators. 

Then  they  were  informed  that  the  Jews  loved  to  drink 
the  blood  of  stolen  boys.   (Beilis  case,  etc.) 

In  our  days  they  are  inspired  with  the  idea  that  the 
Jews  of  Poland  are  spies  and  betrayers. 

Danger  of  Pogroms  after  the  War 

If  this  preaching  will  not  bring  about  bloody  and  dis- 
graceful fruits,  it  will  be  only  because  of  the  phlegmatic 
soul  of  the  Russian  people.  .  .  .  But,  if  this  soul 
shall  be  incited  by  the  efforts  of  the  preachers  of  hate — 
Jewry  will  appear  before  the  Russian  nation  as  a  race 
indicted  of  every  crime. 

And  this  will  not  be  the  first  time  the  Jew  is  made  the 
scapegoat  guilty  of  all  the  misfortunes  of  Russian  life ; 
he  already  more  than  once  became  the  lightning  rod  of 
our  sins,  paying  with  his  fortune  and  life  for  the  help 
he  gave  us  in  our  convulsive  aspirations  towards  a  bet- 
ter future. 

I  think  it  needless  to  be  reminded  that  our  emancipa- 
tion movements  of  the  past  ended  in  Jewish  pogroms."  * 


*  See  note  page  98. 


101 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  EXPELLED 

Women,  Children,  Old  Men  and  Incapacitated  Great 
Majority  of  Expelled 

N.  BRULOV-SHASKOLSKY: 

"As  for  the  character  of  the  expelled  'criminals,'  I 
will  bring  at  random  the  statistics  of  the  expelled  who 
are  in  Poltava.  Out  of  2,357  people  there  were  1,619 
women,  children,  old  men  and  incapacitated.  In  the 
above  number  of  1,619  the  following  are  included : 

Nursing  infants   3^ 

Children  from  one  to  three  years  of  age   144 

( Ihildren  from  four  to  seven  years  of  age   239 

Children  from  eight  to  fourteen  years  of  age   426 

Persons  over  sixty  years  of  age    226 

Persons  over  one  hundred  years  of  age   4 

Persons  afflicted  by  grave  diseases   16 

Blind   b 

Dumb   4 

Cripples   ^ 

Insane  . . . .'  »   4 

Wounded  and  other  soldiers   6 

Total   1,U0 

Transported    Like    Criminals;    Barred    From  Any 
Communication  With  or  Help  From  Communties 
en  Route 

"The  expelled  had  no  freedom  of  movement.  They 
were  forwarded  under  a  bill  of  lading  as  freight,  ex- 
clusively into  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  and  only  into 
those  parts  which  are  far  away  from  the  theatre  of  war. 


102 


on  the  left  shore  of  the  Dnieper.    The  way  was  an  end- 
less one.    The  journey  from  the  province  of  Kovno  to 
the  province  of  Poltava  took  eight  weeks.    Then  as  a 
result  of  the  complete  disorganization,  a  demand  came 
to  have  them  returned  to  the  province  of  Kovno.  The 
broken  and  exhausted  were  again  thrown  into  the  "tep- 
lushkis"  (heated  freight  cars)  and  were  carried  back 
again.   In  Kovno  they,  of  course,  were  not  admitted,  and 
sent  back  once  more.    'We  were  turned  into  tourists,' 
said  an  old  Jewr  on  this  occasion  with  the  humor  of 
despair.     It  may  he  objected,  perhaps,  that  children 
suffering  from  scarlet  fever  and  measles  and  carried  in 
ieplushkis,  persons  of  the  age  of  over  one  hundred  years 
dying  while  on  route,  women  in  childbirth  right  near  the 
dead — that  all  this  is  the  fate  of  all  the  refugees,  of 
Poles  and  Russians  as  well  as  Jews.   Rut  the  Jews  were 
transported  like  criminals ;  they  were  not  permitted  out 
on  the  railroad  stations  to  get  drinking  water,  deliveries 
of  food  were  prohibited,  physicians  were  not  admitted. 
The  seriously  ill  were  not  allowed  to  be  removed  on  the 
way.    Under  present  conditions  the  fate  of  the  refugees 
has  its  comprehensible,  though  cruel,  logic  of  war-time. 
The  expulsion  of  the  Jews,  however,  'during  the  month 
of  May  was  a  heartless,  unreasonable  absurdity ;  they 
were  ruined  and  driven  not  by  the  enemy,  but  by  our 
own  forces. ' '  * 

Expelled — The  Families  of  Men  Battling  at  the  Front 

The  enormous  preponderance  of  women,  children  and 
old  people,  which  at  first  glance  seems  incimprehensible, 
considering  that  the  order  of  expulsion  affects  all  Jews 
alike,  is  explained  by  the  simple  fact  that  the  men,  in 
most  cases,  have  been  taken  into  the  army. 

An  illustration  of  this  fact  may  be  found  in  the  results 
of  an  inquiry  made  by  the  Chernigoff  Committee  for  the 
Relief  of  the  Jewish  population.  It  has  investigated  139 
exile  families,  numbering. 589  persons,  who  have  come  to 

*  Petrograd  monthly,  "Sev  Zapiski,"  Sept,  1915,  p.  184. 

.108 


Chernigoff  from  the  zone  of  military  operations,  mostly 
from  the  Province  of  Kowno;  95  members  of  those  fam- 
ilies had  gone  to  war.  There  were  some  exiled  families 
who  had  two  or  three  members  on  the  fighting  line.  On 
the  average,  every  ten  families  had  furnished  seven  men 
to  the  army.* 

Relief  Work  Hampered 

"The  representative  of  the  Kiev  Jewish  Committee 
who  has  been  working  continually  for  the  last  three  or 
four  months  to  establish  these  expelled  from  the  prov- 
inces of  Kovno  and  Kurland  in  the  province  of  Cherni- 
gov, arrived  at  the  station  of  Briansk,  province  of  Orlov, 
on  the  same  train  with  the  refugees.  At  present  the  refu- 
gees from  these  are  directed  to  the  province  of  Nizhni 
Novgorod.  The  representative  decided  to  accompany 
them  to  the  place  of  destination.  On  the  route  he 
entered  the  fourth-class  car  with  his  second-class  ticket, 
To  the  gendarmes  and  conductors  it  seemed  suspicious, 
and  at  the  station  Briansk  he  was  arrested,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  he  had  letters  of  recommenda- 
tion from  Prince  Urussof  and  by  the  Union  of  Zemstvos. 

11  Two  members  of  the  Jewish  Committee  in  Briansk 
were  threatened  with  arrest,  if  they  should  dare  to  ap- 
pear on  the  railroad  stations  while  the  trains  with  the 
refugees  were  passing.  The  police  reproached  the  local 
Jews  who  brought  food  to  one  of  the  refugee  trains. 
They  were  told  that  by  provisioning  the  refugees  they 
caused  a  rise  in  the  prices  of  foodstuffs.** 

"The  Central  Jewish  Relief  Committee  had  received 
astounding  information  from  Letzinsk  to  the  effect  that 
the  railway  authorities  have  destroyed  the  food  brought 
by  your  local  coreligionists  to  feed  the  hungry  Jewish 
refugees  at  the  station.  The  latter  were  not  even  allow- 
ed to  buy  food,  and  were  sent  into  the  interior  provinces 
in  a  state  of  starvation. "  f 

*  "Kiyevskaya  Misl,"  June  26,  1915 

**  Rus  Viedomosti,  No.  208,  Sept.  2,  1915.    Set-  also  naee  59 
T  London  Jewish  Chronicle,  Oct  29  1915  P  g 


104 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  ALLEGED  ABOLITION  OF  THE  PALE 

Minute  of  the  Council  of  Ministers  of  August  4  (17), 

1915 

"Lately,  in  connect  ion  with  the  war,  the  Jews  have 
been  leaving  en  masse  the  theatre  of  war  and  have  ac- 
cumulated in  some  of  the  interior  governments  of  the 
Empire.  These  happenings  are  to  be  explained  on  the 
one  hand  by  the  desire  of  the  Jews  to  leave  in  good 
time  the  localities  menaced  by  the  enemy,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  the  orders  of  the  Russian  military  au- 
thorities to  evacuate  certain  places  owing  to  the  advance 
of  the  enemy  armies.  The  further  concentration  of  these 
fugitives,  whose  numbers  are  growing  constantly  and 
considerably,  in  the  limited  area  now  allotted  to  them, 
is  causing  dissatisfaction  among  the  local  autochtone 
population  and  may  lead  to  alarming  consequences  in 
the  shape  of  wholesale  (mass)  disorders.  In  the  same 
way  an  excessive  accumulation  of  Jewish  refugees  acts 
as  a  serious  impediment  to  the  care  of  the  Government 
in  respect  of  vitualling,  finding  them  employment,  and 
rendering  sanitary  assistance.  In  these  circumstances, 
being  of  opinion  that  immediate  measures  must  be  taken 
to  remove  undesirable  occurrences,  the  acting  Minister 
of  the  Interior  has  reported  upon  this  question  to  the 
Council  of  Ministers. 

Temporary  Extensions  of  Residence  Rights  Not  to 
Affect  Legal  Status  of  Jews 

' '  Having  considered  this  matter  and  without  referring 
to  the  question  of  the  general  revision  of  the  legislation 
at  present  in  force  concerning  Jews,  the  Council  of  Min- 


105 


isters  found  that  the  most  suitable  way  out  of  the  situa- 
tion that  has  arisen  might  be  the  granting  to  Jews  the 
right  of  residence  in  towns  outside  the  (Jewish)  Pale 
of  Settlement.  Such  a  facility,  introduced  in  view  of  the 
extraordinary  circumstances  of  the  war-time  must  not, 
howev.er,  apply  to  the  Capitals*  and  to  the  localities 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministries  of  the  Imperial 
Court  t  and  the  Ministers  of  War.  $ 

Necessity  to  Transplant  Factories  and  Concerns  to 
Towns  Outside  of  the  Pale  Calls  For  Granting 
Jews  Right  to  Hold  and  Lease  Property  There 

In  this  connection  the  Council  of  Ministers  observed 
that  the  mere  permission  to  Jews,  both  as  employers  and 
as  foremen  and  workmen  in  factories  and  works,  who 
reside  in  town  outside  of  Pale  of  general  Jewish  settle- 
ment, does  not  yet  settle  the  very  important  question 
of  the  further  fate  and  the  restoration  of  the  activity 
of  concerns  that  have  been  evacuated  in  the  new  places. 
For  this  purpose  arrangements  must  be  made  for  setting- 
up  and  equipping  concerns,  and  for  that  purpose  suit- 
able buildings  must  be  adapted.  Thereby  the  question 
arises  of  granting  Jews  who  settle  in  towns  outside  the 
Pale  of  Settlement  the  right  to  acquire  and  hold  on  lease 
real  property. 

Council  Believes  Residence  Concession  Automatically 
Entitles  Jews  to  Hold  Real  Property;  Makes, 
However,  No  Order  on  That  Question 

But  by  the  general  principle  of  legislation  con- 
cerning Jews,  Jews  may  acquire  real  property  with- 
in the  limits  of  towns  wherever  they  are  allowed  to 
reside  permanently,  whether  within  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment or  without.  (Laws  as  to  Ranks  and  Classes,  edition 
1899,  sect.  730.)    //  is  evident  that  the  granting  to  Jews 

*  Petrograd  and  Moscow. 

t  Yalta  and  some  other  summer  residences  of  the  imperial  family 
%  Cossack  Territories.  iaiuu-y. 


IDG 


of  the  right  of  residence  in  towns  outside  the  Pale  of  Set- 
tlement,such  granting  exceeding  the  limits  of  the  right  of 
temporary  presence  which  is  ahva ys  limited  by  a  definite 
short  term  (Institute  of  Passports,  ed.  1903,  sect.  68  ap- 
pendix; Gen.  Establishment  of  Gov'ts,  sees.  438  and  17), 
entails  the  possibility  for  the  Jews  of  the  right  of  acquir- 
ing and  temporarily  using  real  property.  Accordingly 
the  Council  of  Ministers  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  main 
any  special  orders  on  that  question. 

"Passing  them  to  the  question  of  the  procedure  un- 
der which  the  intended  measure  may  be  carried  out, 
the  Council  of  Ministers  thought  it  most  correct  to 
authorize  the  Acting  Minister  of  the  Interior  to  carry 
it  out  under  the  procedure  of  Articles  158  and  314  of 
the  Establishment  of  the  Ministries,  Edition  1892  and 
Continuation  of  1912." 

In    View    of    Extraordinary    Circumstances  Jews 
Temporarily  Permitted  to  Live  in  Towns 
Outside  of  the  Pale 

Pursuant  to  his  authorization  by  the  Council  of  Min- 
isters of  August  4  (17)  Prince  Cherbator,  the  Acting 
Minister  of  Interior,  has  sent,  on  August  15-28  the 
Governors  and  Prefects  the  following  circular : 

"I  beg  to  inform  your  Excellency,  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  the  necessary  orders,  that  in  view  of  the 
extraordinary  circumstances  of  the  time  of  war  and 
pending  the  general  revision  in  the  manner  laid  down 
by  the  law  of  the  laws  and  regulations  in  force  con- 
cerning Jews,  I  have  permitted,  in  accordance  with 
the  decision  of  the  Council  of  Ministers  of  the  4- 17th 
inst.  and  by  virtue  of  article  158  and  314  of  the  Estab- 
lishment of  the  Ministries,  Edition  1892  and  Continua- 
tion of  1912,  Jews  to  live  in  the  towns  outside  the 
Pale  of  their  general  Settlement,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Capitals  and  of  the  localities  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Ministries  of  the  Imperial  Court  and 
of  War." 


107 


The  "Abolition"  of  the  Pale  Semi-Officially  Explained 


E.  Shunugorski,  in  his  "Notice  Book  of  a  Historian," 
writes : 

"The  invasion  of  Western  Russia  by  the  Teutons 
necessarily  left  many  deep  traces  in  this  unhappy 
region,  as  well  as  in  the  neighboring  Polish  Kingdom. 
From  the  cities  and  villages,  ruined  and  burned  by  the 
modern  vandals,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  so-called 
refugees  were  desperately  trying  to  save  themselves  by 
fleeing  from  the  cruel  foe  to  different  places  within  the 
Russian  Empire.    Unfortunately  the  expulsion  of  refu- 
gees did  not  from  the  very  beginning,  receive  the 
necessary  organization,  and  in  the  majority  of  cases 
resulted  in  many  thousands  of  victims  of  our  own  lack 
of  foresight.    Owing  to  the  hidden  antipathy  on  the 
part  of  our  government  to  the  initiative  or  the  activity 
of  public  organizations,  the  corresponding  administra- 
tive organs  proved  inadequate  for  the  handling  of  this 
enormous  movement  of  the  population — a  movement 
that  reminds  one  of  the  epoch  of  the  great  migration 
of  peoples.    The  expulsion,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  abol- 
ished the  notorious  Pale  of  Jewish  Settlement  and 
brought  about  "temporary"  permission  for  Jews  to 
settle  in  all  Russian  cities,  with  the  exception  of  the 
capitals  and  of  the  localities  which  are  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Ministries  of  the  Military  and  of 
the  Imperial  Court. ' '  * 

New  Pale  Regulations  Do  Not  Abolish  Pale- 
Government  Conference  Believes 

The  Government  itself  evidently  considers  the  new 
Pale  regulations  as  only  a  temporary  de  facto  exten- 
sion of  the  Jewish  domicile  rights  which  does  not,  how- 
ever, in  any  way  change  their  legal  status.  Months 
after  the  alleged  abolition  of  the  Pale  was  broadcast 
declared,  an  official  governmental  conference  on  the 

•"Historical   Messenger,"  a  Petrograd   monthly    October    iqi<s  tm, 
"Historical  Messenger"  is  published  by  the  publishers  c     •  «T-h^ 

newspaper  "Novoye  Vremya  "  pumisners  of  the  semi-offcial 


108 


regulation  of  the  restrietions  of  Jewish  rights  to  praetice 
law  is  considering  the  Jewish  Pale  Settlement  as  per- 
manently existing,  and  accordingly  makes  the  restric- 
tions to  practice  law  tighter  outside  the  Pale  than 
within. 

The  Petrograd  law  weekly  gives  the  following  concise 
account  of  this  conference : 

Admission  of  Jews  to  the  Bar  Even  More  Restricted 
Outside  Than  Within  the  Pale 

"A  special  conference  at  the  Ministry  of  Justice 
re  the  admittance  of  Jews  into  the  corporation  of  ad- 
vocates, resolved  by  a  majority  vote  against  the  votes 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Councils  of  Advocates 
and  of  V.  A.  Maklakav  that  Jews  be  admitted  to  enroll 
as  advocates  within  the  limits  of  per  cent,  norm; 
viz.,  in  the  Court  Districts  outside  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment— five  per  cent. ;  in  Court  Districts  including  both 
governments  outside  the  Pale  and  governments  within 
this  Pale — ten  per  cent. ;  in  Districts  within  the  Pale — 
fifteen  per  cent."  * 

Local  Administration  Blocks  Pale  Concessions 

But  even  as  a  measure  of  temporary  relief  the  new 
regulations  were  made  worthless  by  the  practice  of  one 
local  administration,  as  evidenced  from  the  following 
communications  of  the  Russian  and  "allied"  press: 

Kiev. — "The  Elder  of  the  Merchants,  Chokolov,  peti- 
tioned the  military  authorities,  asking  them  to  abolish 
the  prohibition  to  enter  Kiev  without  special  permission 
or  at  least  to  mollify  this  prohibition  for  persons  en- 
gaged in  commerce. 

"A  strange  thing  happened  with  regard  to  the  ques- 
tion of  abolition  of  the  Pale  in  Kiev.  The  Circular  of 
Shcherbatov  was  received  and  sent  to  the  Regencies  of 
the  Provinces,  but  nonetheless  it  was  not  enforced. 
Jews  who  are  coming  into  Kiev  can  gain  no  entrance 

*  "Pravo,"  No.  44,  November  1,  1915,  page  2819. 


109 


into  that  city.  All  petitions  of  persons  interested 
brought  no  results.  The  circular  appears  to  be  entirely 
a  "lost  document."  A  deputation  of  the  Jews  visited 
Savenko,*  asking  him  to  address  Shcherbatov.  Savenko 
promised  his  assistance. "  f 

Transcaspian  Region  Barred  to  Jews 

' '  The  representatives  of  the  Jewish  community  of  the 
city  of  Askaabad  have  sent  a  telegram  fo  the  member 
of  the  State  Duma,  N.  M.  Freedman,  communicating 
that  the  local  administration  bars  the  Jewish  refugees 
from  settling  in  that  city.  In  pursuance  of  this  tele- 
gram, N.  M.  Freedman  appealed  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  to  permit  the  refugees  to  settle  in  the  Trans- 
caspian region  until  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  because 
of  their  complete  destitution.  These  days  the  Deputy 
has  received  an  answer  from  the  Chief  of  the  Asiatic 
Division,  that,  according  to  the  resolution  of  the  mili- 
tary Minister,  pursuant  to  definite  instructions  of  the 
Council  of  Ministers,  recorded  in  the  special  minutes 
of  August  4th,  it  is  impossible  to  grant  his  appeal."*! 

Jews  Excluded  from  Baku  and  Taganrog  (Caucasus) 

"Petrograd— The  Ministry  informed  Deputy  Freed- 
man that  it  could  not  interfere  with  the  military  au- 
thorities who  had  set  up  restrictions  against  the  settle- 
ment of  Jews  at  Baku  and  Taganrog,  despite  the  Gov- 
ernment circular  permitting  Jews  to  reside  there."  ** 

Jews  Prohibited  from  Settling  in  Towns  of  Caucasus 

"The  Northwestern  and  the  Perm  Military  Commer- 
cial Committees  have  appealed  to  the  Ministry  to  grant 
Jewish  factory  owners  and  workmen  facilities  to  settle 
outside  the  Pale,  even  in  the  villages. 

*  Savenko  is  the  editor  of  the 
known  as  a  pivot  of  Autocracy  and'? w-Vh'T*   new,sPaPer  "Kievlianin," 
to  the  Jews.  tocracy  and  Orthodoxy  and  as  quite  unfriendly 


111) 


On  the  other  hand,  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the  new 
Viceroy  of  the  Caucasus,  has  issued  an  order  prohibiting 
Jews  to  settle  in  the  towns  in  the  Caucasus,  thus  annul- 
ling the  effect  of  Prince  Tcheribatoff  's  circular  in  the 
districts  entrusted  to  him.  The  Grand  Duke  also  gave 
orders  that  all  Jewish  refugees  who  recently  settled  in 
the  Caucasus,  including  privileged  Jews,  merchants  and 
artisans,  should  be  immediately  expelled  to  the  Pale."  * 

Siberia  Barred  to  Jews  in  Spite  of  "Abolition"  of 
the  Pale 

The  member  of  the  Duma  from  the  Amur  region, 
A.  E.  Rislev,  received'  the  following  telegram  from  the 
official  rabbi  of  the  city  of  Blagoveshchensk : 

"The  local  administration,  which  received  no  exact 
instructions  with  regard  to  the  circular  of  August  4th, 
declares  that  this  circular  does  not  apply  to  Siberia, 
and  particularly  to  the  Territory  of  the  Amur.  The 
administration  therefore  does  not  permit  the  domicile 
of  the  Jews  coming  here.  I  am  simultaneously  tele- 
graphing to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  requesting  for 
telegraphic  instructions.  I  ask  your  assistance  for  a 
request  that  a  just  interpretation  of  the  circular  con- 
cerning the  domicile  rights  of  Jews  in  the  Territory 
of  Amur  be  given." 

As  is  known,  the  Department  of  General  Affairs  has 
recently  in  a  letter  informed  A.  E.  Rislev  that  the  cir- 
cular over  the  abolition  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement  ap- 
plies to  the  Siberian  Jews  as  well.  Nonetheless,  the 
local  administration,  according  to  Rislev,  does  not  per- 
mit Jews  to  settle  in  Siberia.  Rislev,  therefore,  again 
applied  to  the  Ministry  of  Interior  with  a  request  to 
instruct  the  local  administration  that  the  Pale  be 
extended.  ** 


'London  Jewish  Chronicle,"  November  12 
"Pravo,"  No.  44,  November  1,  1915,  page  2822. 


Ill 


Characteristic  Cases  Arising  Under  Existing  Pale 
Regulations  * 

1.  ' '  The  Governor  of  the  city  of  Rostov  applied  to  the 
Senate  for  instructions  as  to  whether  wives  of  Jews 
holding  diplomas  from  universities  or  from  other  higher 
institutions  of  learning  have  domicile  rights  in  the  Ter- 
ritory of  the  Army  on  the  Don,  when  they  are  not  living 
with  their  husbands. 

"The  Senate  found  that  the  privileges  granted  to  Jews 
aer  not  extended  to  localities  where  special  restricting 
regulations  concerning  the  Jews  are  in  force.  The  above 
question  should  be  decided  in  the  negative,  "f 

2.  "At  a  joint  session  of  the  First  Department  and 
Cassation  Departments  of  the  Senate  a  question  as  to 
whether  the  widow  of  a  Jewish  physician  has  the  right 
of  acquiring  immovable  property  outside  of  the  Pale 
of  Jewish  Settlement.   The  case  arose  under  the  follow- 
ing circumstances:  After  the  death  of  the  physician, 
Lifshitz  from  Libau,  his  wife  petitioned  the  District 
Court  of  Libau  to  confirm  her  rights  of  inheritance  of 
the  physician's  house  in  Libau.    The  District  Court  of 
Libau  and  then  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Petrograd 
have  found  that  the  wife  of  the  physician  has  no  right 
to  possess  immovable  property  in  Libau  by  virtue  of 
the  Doctor's  degree  acquired  by  her  husband,  since  she 
has  domicile  rights  all  over  the  Empire  during  his  life 
only.    The  District  Court  therefore  resolved  to  confirm 
her  in  the  inheritance  right  under  the  condition  that  she 
must  sell  her  property  within  six  months.    The  widow 
appealed  to  the  Senate.   In  view  of  the  different  prece- 
dents in  the  case,  it  was  forwarded  for  consideration 
to  a  joint  session  of  the  1st  and  the  cassation  depart- 
ments.   The  joint  session  found  that  the  widow  of  a 
physician  has  a  right  to  acquire  immovable  property  in 
town-settlements  outside  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement  but 
m  only  the  locality  elected  by  her  as  the  place  of  her 
permanent  residence."** 


*  See  also  page  113. 

l."prav0,",?"ndoa/>  May  17,  1915,  No.  20,  page  1492 
Pravo,"  No.  21,  May  24,  1915,  page  1560 


112 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  ALLEGED  CANCELLATION  OF  PROCEED- 
INGS UNDER  ARTICLE  1,171  OF  VOLUME 
XV  OF  THE  PENAL  CODE 

Confiscation  and  Expulsion  for  Engaging  in  Other 
Than  Expressedly  Permitted  Trade 

"Article  1171:  Jews,  for  engaging  outside  of  the  Pale 
of  Settlement,  in  any  trade  except  that  which  is  ex- 
pressly permitted  to  them  in  the  cases  enumerated  in 
the  law,  are  subjected  to  confiscation  of  their  goods  and 
expulsion  from  those  localities  (into  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment)." 

A  Characteristic  Case  of  Application  of  Article  1,171 
of  the  Penal  Code  in  a  Russian  Court 

"The  case  in  question,  which  concerned  trading  by 
Jews  outside  the  Pale  of  Jewish  Settlement,  came  be- 
fore the  Petrograd  Court  of  Appeal  on  Wednesday, 
March  17. 

"Two  men,  B.  and  G.  Pliner,  father  and  son,  were 
accused  of  dealing  in  meat.  The  former  is  a  blacksmith, 
the  latter  a  coppersmith.  They  have  lived  for  thirty- 
five  years,  each  one  carrying  on  his  trade,  in  the  village 
Piatiousovo,  in  the  government  of  Pskov.  When  the 
local  Administration,  on  the  report  of  some  fellow- 
villager,  took  action  against  the  two  men  for  dealing 
in  meat,  they  gave  the  following  explanation:  In  the 
whole  of  the  village  the  Pliners  are  the  only  Jewish 
family,  and  for  that  reason  they  could  not  buy 
"kosher"  meat  there.    The  family  of  the  Pliners  con- 


113 


sist  of  sixteen  souls.  In  order,  at  least  .sometimes,  to 
Lave  meat  they  would  buy  a  calf  or  other  animal,  and 
would  arrange  for  the  attendance  of  a  qualified  Jewish 
slaughterer.  As  the  hind  quarters  are  not  permitted 
to  observing  Jews  for  consumption,  they  would  sell 
these  at  a  low  price  to  their  neighbors. 

"The  Investigating  Magistrate,  having  established 
that  the  explanation  given  was  borne  out  by  the  facts, 
directed  that  the  proceedings  be  abandoned,  as  no  guilty 
act  whatever  had  been  committed.  The  District  Court 
of  Velikolutsk  did  not,  however,  share  the  view  of  the 
Investigating  Magistrate,  and  ordered  the  action  to 
proceed.  Nor  did  Pliner's  statement  avail  that  at  the 
very  time  that  he  is  being  "tried  for  nothing,"  two 
of  his  sons  and  two  of  his  sons-in-law  are  at  the  front, 
and  fighting  in  advanced  positions.  The  Court  con- 
victed both  father  and  son,  and  sentenced  them  to  be 
sent  back  to  the  Pale  of  Settlement. 

"The  Court  of  Appeal  upheld  the  verdict  of  the 
District  Court. ' '  * 

Imperial  Order  of  September  16th  Granting  Amnesty 
From  Criminal  Proceedings  Under  Article  1171 

"On  the  16/29th  of  September,  the  Imperial  assent 
was  given  to  the  cancellation  of  all  proceedings  that 
commenced  before  the  promulgation  of  the  present 
order  within  the  limits  of  the  Russian  Empire  charging 
.Tews  with  the  criminal  action  within  the  meaning  of 
Article  1,171  of  the  Penal  Code  (concerning  trading 
outsjde  Pale  of  Settlement)  as  regards  criminal  proceed- 
ings in  the  stage  of  investigation  and  of  trial  and  the 
punishment  of  all  persons  against  whom  action  was 
taken  under  that  head,  also  abolishing  measures  that 
have  been  taken  for  preventing  them  from  escaping  the 
judicial  investigation  and  trial. 

"At  the  same  time,  in  view  of  the  permission  granted 
to  .Tews  to  reside  in  the  town  settlements,  the  Minister 

*  "Manchester  Guardian,"  April  6,  1915. 


Ill 


of  Justice  has  instructed  the  Public  Prosecutors  of  the 
Courts  of  Appeal  and  District  Courts  to  take  suitable 
steps  that  until  the  said  permission  is  abolished  no 
criminal  proceedings  to  be  taken  against  Jews  under 
Article  1,171  of  the  Penal  Code,  provided  the  criminal 
committed  in  town  settlements  other  than  the  capitals 
and  localities  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministers 
of  the  Imperial  Court  and  of  War."  * 

Court  Interpretation  Practically  Annuls  Imperial 
Amnesty 

"As  far  back  as  1913,  criminal  proceedings  were  insti- 
tuted against  brothers  Sher  (Shaul  and  Ber)  of  Reval. 
Both  enjoyed  their  right  of  domicile  in  Reval  as  artisans 
— sausage  makers, — and  it  was  alleged  that  they  were 
dealing  not  only  in  the  products  of  their  trade — sausages 
— but  in  meat  also. 

One  of  the  brothers  was  nearly  17  years  old. 

The  district  Court  of  Reval  convicted  both  and  sen- 
tenced them  to  be  sent  back  to  the  (Jewish)  Pale  of 
Settlement  and  to  the  confiscation  of  their  goods. 

The  case  was  taken  by  the  convicted  to  the  Court  of 
Appeals  and  was  heard  there  now  after  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Imperial  Ukase  of  September  16. 

The  attorneys  for  the  defense,  E.  Gordon  and  V.  V. 
Somov,  requested  that  in  pursuance  with  the  Imperial 
Order  the  case  be  dismissed. 

The  Public  Prosecutor  argued  against  the  dismissal 
of  the  action,  maintaining  that  the  Imperial  Order  does 
not  apply  to  localities  where  martial  law  is  declared. 
Now,  since  Reval  is  declared  under  martial  law  and  is 
looked  upon  as  a  fortress,  consequently  it  belongs  to 
the  number  of  localities  unaffected  by  the  concession 
granted  by  the  Imperial  Order  of  September  16. 

The  defense  protested  that  only  localities  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Minister  of  War  are  exempted  from 
the  Imperial  amnesty.   Now,  the  legal  term  of  a  locality 

*  "Novoye  Vremya,"  Oct.  14  (27),  1915. 


115 


under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Minister  of  War  could  by 
no  means  be  identified  with  the  term  -localities  tem- 
porarily declared  under  martial  law." 

In  the  General  Establishment  of  Governments,  how- 
ever, in  the  list  of  localities,  according  to  jurisdiction, 
Reval  is  expressedly  included  in  the  number  of  cities 
which  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  authorities 
and  subject  to  the  general  laws. 

Finally,  if  there  really  was  intention  not  to  apply 
the  Imperial  Order  of  16/29  of  September  to  localities 
under  martial  law,  there  was  no  reason  for  having  it 
promulgated,  because  by  such  a  narrow  interpretation 
the  Order  would  have  been  completely  annulled,  as  at 
present  the  entire  country  was  practically  under  martial 
law. 

Moreover,  martial  law  was  declared  in  Reval  only 
during  the  war,  whereas  the  case  under  consideration 
took  place  yet  in  1913  when  the  city  was  under  no 
martial  law. 

The  Court  of  Appeals,  after  a  long,  continued  con- 
ference, resolved  that  the  proceedings  should  not  be  dis- 
continued. Sh.  Sher  was  acquitted  by  the  Court  of 
Appeals  finding  the  evidence  unsubstantiated  in  his 
case.  The  younger  brother,  B.  Sher,  was,  however, 
found  guilty  and  the  sentence  of  the  District  Court  was 
upheld."  * 


*  "Yevreiskaya  Zhizn,"  January  3,  1916,  No.  1 


lit) 


CHAPTER  XII 


NEW  RESTRICTIONS  OF  JEWISH  RIGHTS  IM- 
POSED DURING  THE  WAR 

1     Educational  Restrictions — Admittance  of  Jews  into 
Secondary  Schools 

"The  Acting  Minister  of  Public  Education  instructed 
the  Curators  of  the  Educational  Districts  to  accept  the 
following  rules  in  place  of  the  existing  regulations,  as 
to  the  admittance  of  Jews  into  secondary  schools : 

"  (1)  Jews  are  admitted  to  examinations  at  the  same 
time  with  students  of  other  faiths. 

"  (2)  The  successes  of  the  Jews  as  shown  at  the  ex- 
amination are  marked  either  'satisfactory'  or 
'  unsatisfactory. ' 

"(3)  From  those  who  get  the  'satisfactory'  mark 
the  children  of  Jews  who  have  been  called  into 
the  active  army  and  have  received  a  distinc- 
tion, or  of  those  who  have  been  killed  or 
wounded,  shall  be  given  preference  over  other 
Jews  for  admittance  to  Jewish  vacancies  in  the 
limits  of  the  per  cent.  norm. 

"  (4)  Those  who  got  the  satisfactory  mark  and  who 
are  the  children  of  Jews  who  have  been  called 
to  the  active  army,  but  who  do  not  satisfy  the 
conditions  of  section  3,  are  admitted  to  the 
Jewish  vacancies  which  are  left,  after  the  en- 
rollment- of  persons  mentioned  in  section  3. 

"  (5)  If  the  number  of  Jews  mentioned  in  section  4 
is  larger  than  the  number  of  vacancies,  a  lot 
shall  be  cast  among  them. 

"(6)  The  Jewish  vacancies  left  after  enrollment  of 
persons  mentioned  in  sections  3-4  shall  be  di- 
vided by  lot  among  the  other  Jews  who  got  the 
  'satisfactory'  mark  at  the  examination."  * 

»  "Russkiye  Vedomosty"  (Moscow  Daily),  April  5,  1915. 


117 


2.  Restriction  of  Jewish  Bights  in  the  Polish  Municipal 
Self -Government  Introduced  During  the  War. 

The  law  introducing  municipal  self-government  in 
Russian  Poland  was  promulgated  on  March  17  (March 
30),  1915,  in  order  of  article  87  of  the  fundamental  laws 
(i.  e.,  without  the  assent  of  the  National  Duma  and 
Council  of  Empire). 

The  law  subjects  the  Jews  in  the  Polish  Municipal 
Corporations  to  the  following  restrictions: 

"Article  xxiii 

'  Sec.  12:  .Jews  are  not  eligible  for  Chairmen  of  Mu- 
nicipal Councils,  or  as  Presidents,  Vice- 
Presidents,  City  Elders,  or  members  of 
the  Executive  Committees.  They  shall  not 
be  admitted  to  the  management  of  separate 
branches  of  the  city  affairs,  or  of  the  city 
government.  The  Jews  shall  also  not  be 
eligible  to  the  offices  of  Municipal  Secre- 
tary or  Secretary  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, neither  of  Acting  Secretaries. 

"Sec.  16:  For  the  administration  of  the- election  of 
city  aldermen,  the  voters  shall  be  divided 
into  three  electoral  colleges:  the  first  to  be 
composed  of  persons  of  Russian  origin;  the 
second,  of  Jews,  and  the  third  to  consist 
of  all  others  voters. 

'Sec.  18 :  Iii  cities  where  the  Jews  comprise  over  one- 
half  of  the  total  population  of  the  city,  the 
second  electoral  college  elects  one-fifth  of 
the  total  number  of  the  city  aldermen;  in 
other  cities  the  number  of  aldermen'  to 
which  the  second  electoral  college  is  en- 
titled shall  depend  on  the  proportion  of 
the  number  of  its  voters  to  the  total  num- 
ber of  voters  in  both  of  the  other  electoral 
colleges.  But  it  shall  in  no  case  exceed 
one-tenth  of  the  total  number  of  aldermen  " 


118 


APPENDIX  I 


Public  Opinion  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
Favors  Emancipation  of  Jews  in  Belligerent 
Countries 

1.  London  Lane  Resolution. 

2.  Resolution  of  the  National  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Socialist  Party  of  the  United  States. 

3.  Resolution  of  the  Convention  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor. 

4.  Resolution  of  the  Trades  Union  Congress  of  Great 
Britain. 

5.  Resolution  of  the  North  Hackney  Liberal  and  Ra- 
dical Association. 


London — Lane  Resolution  Introduced  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  Senate  of  the  U.  S. 

"Joint  resolution  calling  upon  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  convene  a  congress  of  neutral  nations 
to  offer  mediation  to  the  belligerents  in  Europe.  (In 
part)  : 

"Whereas,  The  people  of  the  United  States,  while 
neutral,  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  fratricidal  conflict 
which  is  devastating  Europe;  and 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  that  a 
durable  peace  can  be  established  if  the  following  princi- 
ples shall  be  made  the  basis  of  discussion  in  said  con- 
gress of  neutral  nations. 

"Second,  deliberation  of  oppressed  nationalities. 
"Fourth,  Removal  of  the  political  and  civic  disabilities 
of  the  Jewish  people  wherever  such  disabilities  exist." 


no 


The  Socialist  Party  of  the  United  States 


The  National  Executive  Committee  of  the  Socialist 
Party  of  the  United  States  which  met  11-15  September, 
1915,  adopted  the  following  resolutions: 

"Whereas,  the  .lews,  in  spite  of  reports  to  the  con- 
trary, are  still  being  denied  their  human  and  national 
rights  by  many  of  the  European  countries,  and 

"  Whereas,  the  present  war,  especially  the  bloody  con- 
flict now  raging  on  Russian  territory,  has  increased 
manifold  the  unusual  suffering  and  unheard  of  persecu- 
tion of  the  people  of  this  race;  this  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  Jews,  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  are  fighting 
as  soldiers  in  the  contending  armies,  and 

"Whereas,  this  unhuman  persecution  has  its  roots  in 
the  intolerable  tyranny  exercised  over  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple before  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  masses  of  the 
ignorant  population  of  the  various  countries  not  to 
mention  the  overbearing  and  irresponsible  soldiery  be- 
ing taught  by  those  in  control  of  government  to  look 
upon  the  Jew  as  an  inferior  human  being,  the  permis- 
sible obejet  of  studied  insult  and  intended  offense  with- 
out the  least  danger  of  punishment  to  the  offender,  and 
"Whereas,  the  International  Socialist  movements  of 
every  nation  where  this  question  arises,  have  lost  no 
opportunity  to  declare  unequivocally  for  the  full  eman- 
cipation of  every  oppressed  nationality,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  Jewish  race,  and 

"Whereas,  this  National  Workmen's  Committee, 
through  the  activity  of  our  comrades  of  the  Jewish  Fed- 
eration of  the  Socialist  Party,  is  inspired  to  its  work 
by  the  proper  proletarian  and  socialist  spirt,  and 

"Whereas,  the  Jewish  Workmen's  Committe  recent- 
ly held  a  national  convention  in  New  York,  where  more 
than  350,000  organized  Jewish  working  men  were  rep- 
resented, and 

"Whereas,  this  convention  has  sent  a  delegation  to 
appear  before  our  committee  requesting  the  indorse- 

120 


ment  and  support  of  the  National  Socialist  party  of  the 
United  States,  theferoe  be  it 

"Resolved,  that  we  the  members  of  the  National  Exe- 
cutive Committee  of  the  Socialist  Party  of  the  United 
States  heartily  approve  and  indorse  the  aims  set  forth 
in  the  above  resolution  and  pledge  our  support  to  the 
Jewish  workers  in  their  righteous  cause,  and  be  it  fur- 
ther 

"Resolved,  that  we  request  comrade  Meyer  London, 
our  Congressman,  elected  from  New  York  City,  to  pre- 
pare a  set  of  resolutions  presenting  the  aims  of  the  Na- 
tional Workmen's  Committee  and  introduce  it  into  Con- 
gress after  it  convenes  in  December,  and  be  it  further 

"Resolved,  that  the  Socialist  Party  of  the  United 
States,  instruct  its  delegates  to  the  next  International 
Socialist  Bureau,  to  bring  these  resolutions  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  said  Bureau  and  Congress  when  they  re- 
convene, so  that  united  international  action  may  be  tak- 
en by  the  Socialist  Parties  of  all  countries  to  aid  in 
every  way  possible,  the  Jewish  people  in  their  strug- 
gles to  win  full  and  equal  rights  with  all  other  people 
in  the  countries  where  they  live  and  where  these  rights 
are  now  denied  them.  * 


American  Federation  of  Labor 

The  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
held  in  November,  1915,  in  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  adopted 
the  following  resolution : 

Resolution  113 : 

"Whereas,  It  has  been  the  good  fortune  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  be  comparatively  free  from  the 
turmoil  of  European  strife,  its  hatreds  and  prejudices; 
and 

"Whereas,  The  people  and  the  government  of  the 
United  States  are  in  a  position  to  exercise  a  beneficient 
influence  in  aiding  the  world  to  lay  a  foundation  for  a 

*  American  Socialist,  Sept.  25,  1915. 


121 


durable  and  permanent  peace  based  upon  justice  to  all; 
and 

"Whereas,  In  some  of  the  war  countries  of  Europe, 
and  in  Roumania  the  Jewish  people  are  still  deprived 
of  elementary  political  and  civic  rights;  and 

"Whereas,  Every  form  of  religious  oppression  and 
discrimination  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Ameri- 
can people ;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
requests  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  urge 
upon  the  governments  of  the  nations  of  other  countries 
to  cease  discriminations  wherever  they  exist,  and  now 
practiced  against  the  Jewish  people;  and  be  it  further 

"Resolved,  That  the  same  appeal  be  made  by  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  to  the  organized  work- 
ers of  all  nations." 


The  Trades  Union  Congress  of  Great  Britain 

The  Trades  Union  Congress  which  met  during  Sep- 
tember, 1915,  in  Bristol,  unanimously  adopted  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

"That  the  Congress  fervently  hopes  that  civil  and 
political  rights  will  be  granted  to  the  Jews  of  those 
countries  where  these  common  rights  are  at  present 
denied  them,  in  recognition  for  the  great  sacrifices,  the 
best  manhood  of  Jewry  is  making  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies  in  our  common  fight  for  liberties  of  the  world, 
and  that  the  Parliamentary  Committee  shal  petition  the 
British  Government  to  use  its  good  offices  in  that  direc- 
tion when  the  opportunity  will  arise. ' '  * 


North  Hackney  Liberal   and  Radical  Association- 
Great  Britain 

The  following  resolution  was  passed  unanimously  at 
a  meeting  of  the  North  Hackney  Liberal  and  Radical 
Association  held  in  October,  1915. 

*  London  Jewish  Chronicle,  Sept.  17,  1915. 


122 


"That  in  view  of  the  Prime  Minister's  declaration  as 
to  this  being  a  war  of  liberty  and  freedom,  and  for  the 
rights  of  small  nationalities,  this  executive  greatly  de- 
plores the  continued  serious  prosecution  of  the  Jews  in 
Russia,  400,000  of  whom  are  fighting  their  country's 
battles;  and  having  regard  also  to  the  unfavorable  im- 
pression this  is  making  on  neutral  countries,  urges  the 
Government  to  use  its  influence  to  alleviate  the  suffer- 
ings of  these  people.  That  copies  of  this  resolution  be 
sent  to  the  Prime  Minister  and  Sir  Edward  Grey. ' '  * 


*  London  Jewish  Chronicle,  Oct.  22,  1915. 


APPENDIX  II 


A  LONDON  APPEAL  TO  AID  THE  REFUGEE- 
JEWS  IN  RUSSIA 
"Fund  for  the  Relief  of  the  Jewish  Victims  of  the  War 
in  Russia 


,EOPOLD  DE  ROTH  CHILD,  Esq., 
President 


Right  Hon.  LORD  SWAYTHLING, 
Treasurer 


GENERAL  COMMITTEE: 


The  Very  Rev.  the  Chief  Rabbi, 
Dr.  J.  H.  Hertz 
The  Very  Rev.  the  Haham,  Dr.  M. 

Gaster,  Ph.D. 
The  Right  Hon.  Lord  Reading,  G. 

C.  B.,  C.  V.  O. 
The  Right  Hon.   Lord  Michelham, 

K.  C.  V.  O. 
The  Right  Hon.  Herbert  Samuels, 

P.  C.,  M.P. 
Sir  Lionel  Abrahams,  K.  C.  B. 
Sir  Herbert  B.  Cohen,  Bart. 
Sir  Charles  Henry,  Bart.,  M.P. 
Sir  Joseph  Lyons 
Sir  Philip  Magnus,  M.P. 
Colonel  Sir  Frederic  Nathan 
Lieut-Colonel  Sir  Matthew  Nathan, 

G.  C.  M.  G. 
Sir  Marcus  Samuel,  Bart. 
Sir  Stuart  M.  Samuel,  Bart.  M.P. 
Sir  Isidore  Spielmann,  C.  M.  G. 
Sid  Edward  Stern 
Sir  Adolph  Tuck,  Bart. 
Louis  Abrahams,  Esq. 
Elkan  N.  Adler,  Esq. 
David  L.  Alexander,  Esq.,  K.  C, 
(President,  London  Committee  of 
Deputies  of  British  Jews) 
S.  G.  Asher,  Esq. 
Henry  E.  Beddington,  Esq. 
John  H.  Beddington,  Esq. 
Dr.  R.  Blank  (Delegate  of  the  Fed- 
erated Relief  Committees  of  Pet- 
rograd,  Moscow,  Kieff,  and  Odes- 
sa) 

George  A.  Cohen,  Esq. 

Leonard  L.  Cohen,  Esq.  (President, 

Jewish  Board  of  Guardians) 
Robert  Waley  Cohen,  Esq. 
Joseph    Cowen,    Esq.  (President, 

English  Zionist  Federation) 
O.  E.  d'Avigdor  Golsmid,  Esq. 


Felix  Davis,  Esq.  (Vice-President, 

United  Synogogue) 
Charles  de  Pass,  Esq. 
Ernest  L.  Franklin,  Esq. 
Arthur    E.    Farnklin,    Esq.,    J. P. 
(President,  Jewish  Religious  Edu- 
cation Board) 
Leonard  B.  Franklin,  Esq. 
L.  J.  Greenberg,  Esq. 
Lieut-Col.  Cecil  Q.  Henriques 
Henry  S.  Q.  Henriques,  Esq. 
Albert  H.  Jessel,  Esq.,  K.C.  (Vice- 
President,  United  Svnogogue) 
S.  B.  Joel,  Esq. 
Benjamin  Kisch,  Esq. 
Herman  Landau,  Esq.  (President, 
Central  Committee  for  Relief  of 
Polish  Jews 
Simeon  Lazarus,  Esq. 
Herbert  G.  Lousada,  Esq.  (Chair- 
man, Council  West  London  Syna- 
gogue of  British  Jews) 
Colonel  F.  A.  Lucas,  J. P. 
Claude  G.  Montefiore,  Esq.  (Presi- 
dent, Anglo-Jewish  Association) 
Arthur  R.  Moro,  Esq. 
Albert  Reitlinger,  Esq. 
Louis  Reyersbach,  Esq. 
Hon.  N.  Charles  Rothchild 
Major  Lionel  de  Rothchild,  M  P 
Samuel  Samuel,  Esq.,  M.P. 
F.  D.  Sassoon,  Esq. 
Meyer  Sassoon,  Esq. 
Issac  Seligman,  Esq. 
Oswald  J.  Simmon,  Esq. 
NT.  Sokolow,  Esq. 
James  H.  Solomon,  Esq 
M.  A.  Spielman,  Esq 

?ffnrS  Xai,den  T?erSh'  Es<I- 
Alfred  Waley,  Esq 

Lucien  Wolf,  Esq 

Albert  M.  Woolf,  Esq 

Isreal  Zanwill,  Esq 


Leopold  de  Rothschild,  Esq.,  CVO 
The  Right  Hon.  Lord  Swaything 
The  Very  Rev.  the  Chief  Rabbi 
The  Very  Rev.  the  Haham 
Elkan  N.  Alder,  Esq. 
David  L.  Alxeander,  Esq.,  K  C 
Leonard  L.  Cohen,  Esq. 
H.  S.  O.  Henriques,  Esq. 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 


Herman  Landau,  Esq 
Herbert  G.  Lousada,  Esq 
Sir  Joseph  Lyons 

AiKUdf       Montefiore,  Esq. 
Albert  Reithnger,  Esq 
Sir  Marcus  Samuel,  Bart 
Lucien  Wolf,  Esq. 


124 


Appeal 


The  calamity  which  has  befallen  the  Russian  and 
Polish  Jewish  communities  is  of  the  most  appalling 
character,  and  has,  indeed,  no  precedent  in  the  tragical 
vicissitudes  of  the  Jewish  people. 

' '  From  end  to  end  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement — the  cen- 
tre of  gravity  of  the  European  Jery — the  country  has 
been  ravaged  with  a  completeness  unparrelleled  in  the 
other  vast  battlefields  of  the  war.  The  ebb  and  flow  of 
three  invasions  have  left  the  whole  of  Poland  and  many 
of  the  contiguous  provinces  almost  desolate,  and  the 
larger  part  of  the  population  are  now  fugative — for  the 
most  part  starving  and  shelterless — in  the  provinces  to 
the  rear  of  the  battling  Russian  lines.  For  months  past 
our  well-to-do  Russian  co-religionists  living  outside  the 
Pale  have  grapped  courageously  and  generously  with 
their  share  of  this  colsosal  problem,  but  their  resources 
are  quite  inadequate  to  meet  the  daily  increasing  de- 
mands made  upon  them.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  they 
now  ask  the  Jews  of  the  world  to  come  to  their  assis- 
tance, and  we  feel  confident  that  their  call  will  find  a 
responsive  echo  in  every  Jewish  heart. 

"It  is  not  possible  at  this  moment  to  give  exact  statis- 
tics of  the  Jewish  victims  for  whom  help  is  needed.  The 
expulsions  from  the  war  zone,  which  began  last  autumn, 
and  which  were  from  the  outset  attended  by  terrible 
hardsips,  had  by  the  end  of  May  gradually  depopulated 
all  the  chief  Jewish  centres  in  fourteen  Russian  and 
Polish  provinces  and  the  larger  part  of  Galicia.  The 
number  of  Jewish  fugitives  for  whom  the  Relief  Commit- 
tees of  Petrograd,  Moscow,  Kieff,  and  Odessa  were  then 
making  provision  was  526,000,  and  the  cost  of  their 
maintenance  was  no  less  than  3,682,000  roubles  per 
month.  Since  then  the  distress  has  more  than  doubled, 
both  in  intensity  and  volume.  The  larger  part  of  the 
Jews  who  had  remained  in  Poland  have  joined  their 
Christian  fellow-countrymen  in  flying  before  the  Ger- 
man occupation,  and  it  is  estimated  that  of  the  refugees 


1-25 


now  wandering  helplessly  in  the  provinces  east  and 
south-east  of  Warsaw  quite  a  million  and  a  half  are 
J  ews. 

"The  distress  of  the  Jewish  refugees  has  unhappily 
been  accentuated  by  the  fact  that  they  consist  in  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  most  helpless  elements  of  the  com- 
munity— old  men,  women,  and  children.    Even  in  nor- 
mal times  their  burdens  in  this  respect  are  dispropor- 
tionately heavy,  but  in  the  present  war  the  sacrifices  im- 
posed upon  them  have  been  vastly  increased  by  the  pa- 
triotic alacrity  with  which  the  whole  valid  Jewish  man- 
hood of  Poland  and  Russia  has  rallied  to  the  colors, 
supplying  large  numbers  of  volunteers  in  addition  to 
the  ordinary  contigents  of  reservists  and  recruits.  Thus 
the  refugees  have  a  double  claim  upon  the  sysmpathy 
and  help  of  their  brethren  in  the  allied  countries.  We 
owe  it  as  much  to  their  brave  sons,  brothers,  and  hus- 
bands, who,  with  such  signal  honor  to  the  Jewish  name, 
are  helping  us  to  fight  our  battles  for  national  existence, 
;is  to  their  own  heartrending  need  that  we  should  fly 
promptly  and  generously  to  their  assistance."* 

Charles  E.  Sebag-Montefiore,  Esq., 
Otto  M.  Schipf,  Esq., 

Honorary  Secretries. 


*  Reprinted  (in  part)  from  "London  Jewish  Chronicle,"  of  Nov.  17,  1915. 


